John K Stokes, MDNeurosurgery in Austin, TX

John K. Stokes, MD, is a board-certified neurosurgeon and fellowship-trained spine specialist at Ascension Texas Spine & Scoliosis in Austin, Texas. Dedicated exclusively to spine care, he treats a broad range of conditions affecting the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. His clinical interests include cervical artificial disc replacement, minimally invasive and endoscopic spine surgery, spinal tumors, adult scoliosis and complex spinal reconstruction.

Having performed thousands of spinal procedures, Dr. Stokes provides compassionate, patient-centered care with an emphasis on conservative treatment options and thoughtful surgical decision-making. He specializes in the surgical and nonsurgical management of degenerative spine disorders, spinal stenosis, spinal instability, cervical myelopathy, spinal tumors, adult scoliosis, adult kyphosis and complex revision deformity cases.

Raised in East Texas, Dr. Stokes earned his undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin and his medical degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He completed his neurosurgical residency at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he served as Chief Resident, before pursuing fellowship training in spinal neurosurgery at the Cedars-Sinai Institute for Spinal Disorders and UCLA. After completing his fellowship in 2002, he returned to Austin to establish a spine-focused practice.

In 2009, Dr. Stokes was named Co-Chief of Ascension Texas Spine & Scoliosis. He achieved board certification from the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 2005 and remains an active member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Stokes maintains an active interest in spine research and has authored numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications. He also served as a principal investigator in the Mobi-C Cervical Artificial Disc Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) study, which contributed to FDA approval of the first artificial disc for two-level cervical implantation.