Christopher Ames

Biography

Dr. Christopher Ames is director of spinal tumor and spinal deformity surgery at UCSF Medical Center. He also is co-director of the Neurospinal Disorders Program and the UCSF Spine Center. Ames, who is board certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, is a specialist in spinal reconstructive surgery for trauma, tumors and degenerative disease, particularly en bloc tumor resection for chordoma, chondrosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma, sacral tumors and other primary and metastatic tumors. He developed and published the transpedicular approach to previously unresectable cervical and cervical thoracic tumors.  

Research Interest

Ames directs the Neurosurgical Spinal Deformity service that treats more than 200 patients a year for correction of scoliosis, kyphosis, flat back, chin on chest deformity in ankylosing spondylitis, basilar invagination in rheumatoid arthritis, spondylolisthesis and postoperative deformity. He also performs state-of-the-art percutaneous fusion procedures and has published extensively in spinal biomechanics and the use of resorbable polymers for spinal reconstruction. He is the 2005 winner of the prestigious International Society for Study of the Lumbar Spine research award for his work on spinal fusion in tumor reconstructions requiring radiation therapy and is a principal investigator in five randomized prospective clinical trials evaluating novel mechanisms of spinal reconstruction in tumor surgery and spinal deformity. Ames is a professor in neurological surgery.