Christopher P. Ames, MD

Dr. Christopher Ames is a neurosurgeon who cares for patients with tumors, scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) and kyphosis (curvature of the upper back). His expertise includes treating chordoma (a cancerous spinal tumor) with en bloc resection (a technique for removing the diseased tissue in one piece). He also specializes in chondrosarcoma (a rare bone cancer that starts in cartilage cells), giant cell tumor (an aggressive, noncancerous tumor), soft tissue sarcoma (cancer affecting connective tissues) and sacral tumors (those affecting the sacrum, a bone at the base of the spine).

Ames directs surgery for spinal tumors and deformities. He is co-director of the UCSF Spine Center, a specialty service providing the most advanced treatments for patients with spinal disorders. In addition, he directs UCSF's neurosurgical spinal deformity service and tumor and deformity fellowship program, which performs more than 200 procedures each year to correct scoliosis, kyphosis, flatback syndrome, and chin-on-chest deformity in ankylosing spondylitis.

Ames directs UCSF's spinal biomechanics laboratory. He serves as the UCSF site director for the International Spine Study Group as well as for the multicenter, international Scoli-RISK-1 Study, sponsored by the AO Foundation in collaboration with the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS), which is looking at neurological complications following spinal deformity surgery. He has published pioneering research on tumor surgery, how to classify spinal deformities, and other concepts that support safer treatment planning for complex spine surgery. He also pioneered the use of custom implant technologies for spinal deformity surgery as well as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) decision support tools for surgery on adults with scoliosis. His spinal deformity research has won numerous honors, including the SRS Russell A. Hibbs Award (the top prize in scoliosis surgery research) five times, SRS John H. Moe Award, SRS Louis A. Goldstein Award (twice) and SRS Thomas E. Whitecloud Award (twice). In addition, Ames founded the largest adult spinal deformity biomarker and tissue bank in the world, which supports research into new strategies for identifying risk and optimizing outcomes for aging patients undergoing spinal surgery.

Ames earned his medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He completed a residency in neurosurgery at the University of California, San Diego, where he served as chief resident. He completed a fellowship in complex spine surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute. He has been at UCSF for more than 20 years.

Internationally recognized for his work in spinal tumors and deformities, Ames has published articles in more than 800 peer-reviewed publications. He serves as spine section lead editor for the journal Operative Neurosurgery. A globally honored lecturer, he has presented to meetings of national and regional spine societies and orthopedic associations all over the world, including those of Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Asia-Pacific, Japan and South Korea, and also to the Cervical Spine Research Society – Europe He has served as chairman for more than 300 national and international courses that teach surgical techniques for advanced tumors and deformities to neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons around the world. He has been a visiting professor at the Hospital for Special Surgery; Cleveland Clinic; Mayo Clinic; University of California, Los Angeles; and Massachusetts General Hospital. He serves on the SRS board as well as the steering committee of the AO Foundation's knowledge forum on adult spinal deformities.

San Francisco Magazine has named Ames to its top doctors list every year from 2015 to 2025, and Castle Connolly named him one of the country's top doctors for both neurosurgery and cancer from 2010 to 2025.