Spinal Surgeon NYC — Han Jo Kim, MD, Orthopedic Spine Surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery
Spine surgery is complex, and the surgeon you choose matters. Han Jo Kim, MD is an attending orthopedic spine surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He treats the full range of spine conditions — from a herniated disc pressing on a single nerve root to a rigid deformity that has failed previous surgery — in both adults and children.
Dr. Kim believes in a comprehensive approach to patient care. Working alongside internists, anesthesiologists, neurologists, radiologists, physiatrists, and pediatricians, every reasonable alternative to surgery is explored before an operation is considered. Because spine surgery is invasive, it is not a first step. But delaying too long once a nerve or the spinal cord is under pressure can leave permanent deficits, so an accurate diagnosis early is what protects your options.
Call the Office
Speak with Dr. Kim’s team about scheduling, records, or insurance.
Fax: 646.797.8428
Request an Appointment
Submit your information online and the office will follow up with you directly.
Virtual visits available.
Three New York Locations
Manhattan, Uniondale, and Water Mill — see all office details.
Same phone number for all three.
About Han Jo Kim, MD
Dr. Kim earned his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Hospital for Special Surgery. He went on to complete two fellowships at Barnes-Jewish Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis: the first in adult and pediatric spinal deformity and reconstruction surgery, the second a sub-specialized fellowship in cervical spine surgery. He is board certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery.
At HSS he serves as Director of the Complex Spine and Scoliosis Center, Spine Fellowship Director, and Chair of the Fellowship Committee, and he holds the David B. Levine, MD Endowed Chair in Scoliosis. He is also an attending orthopedic surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
That combination of training is unusual and it shapes the practice. Cervical spine surgery and complex deformity correction are ordinarily separate sub-specialties; Dr. Kim is formally trained in both, which matters for patients whose neck problem is really an alignment problem, or whose deformity involves the cervical spine.
Credentials & Recognition
- Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Weill Cornell Medical College
- David B. Levine, MD Endowed Chair in Scoliosis, Hospital for Special Surgery
- Director, Complex Spine and Scoliosis Center, and Spine Fellowship Director at HSS
- Board certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery
- More than 400 peer-reviewed articles and more than 65 book chapters authored
- 50+ fellows and residents trained, plus 35+ international research fellows mentored from 12 countries
- Board of Directors, Scoliosis Research Society and FOCOS Hospital
- Becker’s Spine Review — 150 Best Spine Surgeons in America (2024)
- SRS Russell A. Hibbs Clinical Research Award (2024), Edgar G. Dawson Fellowship (2013), SRS Traveling Fellowship (2017)
- Languages spoken: English, Spanish, and Korean
Global Deformity Experience
Dr. Kim has served as a volunteer surgeon at FOCOS Hospital in Ghana, West Africa, performing hundreds of operations on some of the rarest and most complex spinal deformities seen anywhere in the world, in both children and adults. He now sits on the hospital’s Board of Directors. Patients who arrive with unusually severe curves, rigid deformity, or a spine that has already been operated on several times benefit directly from that volume of complex experience.
Read more about Dr. Kim or browse patient testimonials.
Office Locations & Directions
Dr. Kim sees patients at three locations across New York. All appointments are scheduled through the same number: 212-774-2837.
HSS — The Pavilion
541 East 71st Street, 4th Floor New York, NY 10021
Tel: 212.774.2837 Fax: 646.797.8428
The main entrance to The Pavilion is on the north side of 71st Street, beneath the sky bridge.
HSS Long Island — The Omni
333 Earle Ovington Blvd, Suite 106 Uniondale, NY 11553
Tel: 212.774.2837
Convenient for patients traveling from Nassau and western Suffolk County.
HSS Southampton
56 Flying Point Rd, Water Mill, NY 11976
Tel: 212.774.2837
Serving patients on the East End of Long Island.
Conditions Dr. Kim Treats
Back and neck pain is common, and the overwhelming majority of it never requires an operation. What brings patients to a spine surgeon is usually a specific structural problem that has stopped responding to conservative care. The most frequent ones include:
- Herniated disc. The soft inner material of a disc pushes through a tear in its outer ring and presses on a nerve root. Pain often travels down the arm or the leg rather than staying in the neck or back, and can come with numbness, tingling, or weakness along the path of that nerve. Many herniated discs settle over weeks to months with non-operative care.
- Spinal stenosis. A narrowing of the space the spinal cord and nerves travel through, most often caused by arthritic wear. In the neck (cervical stenosis) it can cause hand clumsiness, weakness, and balance trouble. In the lower back (lumbar stenosis, the more common form) it typically causes leg pain and heaviness that improves when you sit or lean forward.
- Degenerative disc disease. Discs lose height and hydration with age, which shifts load onto the joints behind them and can produce stiffness, pain, and secondary nerve compression.
- Cervical radiculopathy and myelopathy. Pressure on a nerve root in the neck, or on the spinal cord itself. Myelopathy in particular is worth evaluating promptly.
- Scoliosis and kyphosis. Curvature of the spine in the coronal or sagittal plane, in adolescents and in adults.
- Spondylolisthesis. One vertebra slips forward relative to the one below it, which can narrow the space around nearby nerves.
- Osteoporotic compression fractures. Fragile bone can fracture under ordinary load, sometimes causing progressive forward stoop.
- Cervical deformity. Abnormal neck alignment, including chin-on-chest deformity and post-surgical deformity.
- Failed prior spine surgery. Continued symptoms, hardware problems, or deformity that has developed above or below a previous fusion.
- Spine tumors and spine trauma.
Non-Surgical Care Comes First
Most spine conditions improve without an operation, and Dr. Kim begins with the least invasive option that fits the diagnosis. Non-operative care is coordinated with pain specialists, physiatrists, and physical therapists, and typically includes:
- Physical therapy with a clinician experienced in spine conditions — targeted strengthening, posture work, and mobility exercises matched to the specific diagnosis rather than a generic back program
- Medications such as anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants, and neuropathic pain medications when nerve symptoms are present
- Activity and ergonomic modification — workstation and screen setup, lifting technique, and adjusting the high-load activities that reproduce your symptoms
- Image-guided injections to reduce inflammation around an irritated nerve, and to help confirm which level is actually generating the pain
- Bracing for growing patients with moderate scoliosis curves
A few habits genuinely reduce the load on your spine over a lifetime: keeping abdominal and back muscles conditioned, breaking up long periods of sitting rather than holding one posture, keeping loads close to the body when lifting instead of bending and reaching, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking — nicotine impairs bone healing and is a meaningful risk factor if fusion surgery is ever needed.
Surgery enters the conversation when symptoms persist despite appropriate non-operative care, when there is weakness or spinal cord compression, or when a deformity is documented to be progressing.
Surgical Procedures
Which operation is appropriate depends on the diagnosis, the anatomy, the alignment of the spine as a whole, and your own goals. Broadly, spine surgery does one of three things: it takes pressure off a nerve, it stabilizes a segment that has become unstable, or it corrects alignment.
Cervical Spine (Neck)
- Anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF). Through a small incision at the front of the neck, the disc is removed, the nerve is decompressed, and the level is fused.
- Cervical disc arthroplasty (disc replacement). A motion-preserving alternative to fusion for appropriately selected patients.
- Anterior cervical corpectomy and fusion. Removal of a vertebral body when compression extends behind the bone itself.
- Posterior cervical foraminotomy. Enlarging the opening a nerve root exits through, without fusion.
- Posterior cervical laminoplasty. Reconstructing the back of the canal to relieve cord pressure while preserving motion.
- Posterior cervical decompression and fusion. For multilevel compression or instability.
- Atlantoaxial (C1–C2) and occipitocervical fusion. For instability at the top of the neck.
- Cervical osteotomies. Controlled bone cuts to correct fixed cervical deformity.
Lumbar Spine & Deformity
- Decompression and laminectomy. Removing the back portion of the vertebra to relieve nerve compression causing pain or weakness. A laminotomy removes less bone; a laminoplasty reconstructs rather than removes it.
- Microdiscectomy. Removing the fragment of a herniated disc that is pressing on a nerve root.
- Lumbar decompression and fusion. For stenosis accompanied by instability or slippage.
- Smith-Petersen and pedicle subtraction osteotomies. Controlled bone cuts that correct fixed deformity, most often to restore forward-backward alignment.
- Vertebral column resection. A powerful correction reserved for the most severe and rigid deformities.
- Spinal reconstruction. Long-segment instrumentation to stabilize and realign complex deformity.
- Revision surgery. For hardware problems, non-healing fusions, or new deformity after prior surgery.
Scoliosis
Scoliosis is a rotational curvature of the spine that affects roughly 3% of adolescents and a growing number of adults as the population ages. In children the concern is progression during growth; in adults it is usually pain, nerve symptoms, and loss of upright posture as the spine degenerates. Dr. Kim treats both, and offers fusion, vertebral body tethering, growing rod systems, osteotomies, and revision surgery depending on age, curve size, and flexibility.
Scoliosis is covered in far more depth on its own page, including bracing, Cobb angle thresholds, surgical goals, and recovery: Scoliosis Surgery in New York.
What to Expect Around Surgery
Spine surgery is performed under anesthesia, and you will not feel anything during the procedure. Length varies widely — a single-level decompression is short, while a multilevel deformity correction is a major operation.
Before surgery, the things that measurably improve outcomes are within your control: stopping smoking, addressing nutrition, and staying as active as your symptoms allow so you enter the operation stronger. If you take blood thinners or anti-inflammatories, the office will tell you when to stop them.
Afterward, walking begins early — usually the same day or the next. Bending, lifting, and twisting are restricted while healing gets underway, and driving resumes only once you are off sedating pain medication and can turn comfortably. Fusions take months to consolidate into solid bone even though you will feel considerably better long before that.
Dr. Kim spearheaded the enhanced recovery pathways developed at HSS, which are designed to reduce pain, shorten hospital stays, and get patients moving sooner even after complex procedures.
Read more about recovering from spine surgery or review our patient information.
Patient Testimonials
Why Patients Choose Dr. Kim
- Hospital for Special Surgery affiliation, with surgery performed at a hospital dedicated entirely to orthopedics
- Dual fellowship training in cervical spine surgery and in adult and pediatric spinal deformity — two sub-specialties that are usually separate
- Endowed chair and fellowship director at HSS, actively training practicing spine surgeons
- Hundreds of complex deformity cases, including volunteer work at FOCOS Hospital in Ghana on some of the rarest deformities in the world
- Adults and children both treated within one practice
- Motion-preserving options where anatomy allows, including cervical disc replacement, laminoplasty, and vertebral body tethering
- A conservative threshold for operating, with alternatives exhausted first and a multidisciplinary team to deliver them
- Enhanced recovery pathways he helped develop at HSS
- Three New York locations — Manhattan, Uniondale, and Water Mill
Frequently Asked Questions
Most people do not. Surgery is generally considered when a structural problem is clearly identified on imaging, that problem explains your symptoms, and appropriate non-operative care has been given a fair trial without adequate relief. It moves up the list when there is progressive weakness, spinal cord compression, or a deformity documented to be getting worse. Pain alone, without a structural target, is rarely improved by an operation — which is why the evaluation matters as much as the surgery.
Frequently, yes. Many herniated discs improve over weeks to months as the inflammation around the nerve settles and the disc fragment shrinks, particularly with physical therapy and activity modification. Staying reasonably mobile tends to help more than extended bed rest. What warrants prompt evaluation instead of waiting is progressive weakness, symptoms in both legs, or any change in bowel or bladder control.
Spinal stenosis is narrowing of the space the spinal cord and nerve roots pass through, usually from arthritic wear, and it becomes more common after age 50. Surgery is not the only option. Physical therapy, medication, activity modification, and image-guided injections all have a role, and many people manage well for years without an operation. Decompression surgery is considered when leg symptoms significantly limit walking, or when weakness or cord compression is present.
An osteotomy is a controlled bone cut used to correct alignment that has become fixed and can no longer be corrected by positioning alone. Removing a precise wedge of bone and closing the gap allows the spine to be brought back toward neutral. Osteotomies are used in rigid scoliosis, kyphosis, and cervical deformity, and in revision surgery. They are powerful and correspondingly demanding, which is why they belong with surgeons who perform them regularly.
Sometimes. Dr. Kim has a particular interest in motion-preserving procedures. Cervical disc replacement and laminoplasty can address neck problems without eliminating movement at that level, and vertebral body tethering is a fusion-less option for selected growing scoliosis patients. Whether a motion-preserving approach is appropriate depends on the diagnosis, the anatomy, and overall alignment — determining that is one of the specific purposes of the evaluation.
Yes. His deformity fellowship covered both adult and pediatric spinal deformity, and the practice treats adolescent scoliosis and congenital deformities alongside adult degenerative scoliosis, cervical deformity, and revision surgery. Many spine programs focus on one population or the other.
The structure causing the problem — a disc, bone, or area of compression — is removed first. The affected vertebrae are then joined using bone graft, with screws, rods, or plates providing immediate stability while the graft consolidates. Over the following months the segment heals into a single block of bone, which is what holds the correction and stops motion at that level. Modern instrumentation allows good correction over shorter segments than was possible in past decades.
It depends heavily on the procedure. A decompression or microdiscectomy involves a short recovery measured in weeks. A fusion or deformity correction is a longer process: walking starts early, lifting and bending are restricted at first, sedentary work usually resumes well before physical work, and full bone healing across a fusion takes many months even though you feel substantially better sooner. Dr. Kim’s team will give you a timeline specific to your operation and coordinate physical therapy throughout.
Dr. Kim sees patients at HSS — The Pavilion at 541 East 71st Street in Manhattan, at HSS Long Island in Uniondale, and at HSS Southampton in Water Mill. All three are scheduled through 212-774-2837. Availability varies by location, so the office can help you choose based on your schedule and where you are traveling from.
The office works with a wide range of plans, and participation can change. Please call 212-774-2837 with your plan details and the team will confirm coverage before your visit. If you have out-of-network benefits, your plan may reimburse a portion of the office visit.
Your insurance card and photo ID, a list of current medications, and any recent spine imaging — X-rays, MRI, or CT. The images themselves, on disc or via a digital link, are more useful than the written report alone. If you have had previous spine surgery, bring the operative reports. A written list of your questions is worth more than most people expect.
Have a question that isn’t answered here? Visit our full FAQ or browse the Knowledge Center.
Schedule Your Consultation
An accurate diagnosis is the first step, and it is what keeps your options open. Dr. Han Jo Kim and his team see patients at three New York locations, and most of them are treated without surgery. See all services or get in touch below.