Christopher Bono

Dr. Christopher M. Bono is an experienced adult spine surgeon with particular interest in the management of cervical and lumbar degenerative disorders. He is a national and international leader in spinal research and evidence-based medicine, enabling him to incorporate the latest treatment data into patient discussion for informed surgical decision-making.

Dr. Bono is a board-certified, fellowship-trained adult spine surgeon in the Orthopaedic Spine Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Bono obtained his medical degree (MD) from the State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center at Brooklyn (now called SUNY Downstate Medical Center). He next completed his orthopaedic residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Medical School (now called Rutgers New Jersey Medical School). Dr. Bono completed a spine surgery fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Bono specializes in cervical spinal stenosis, cervical myelopathy, cervical disc herniations, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar disc herniations, and lumbar spondylolisthesis.

Dr. Bono is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is past president of the North American Spine Society (2015-2016) and continues to be quite active in a number of committees. Dr. Bono is the current Editor-in-Chief of The Spine Journal, which holds the highest impact factor among journals dedicated to spine. Dr. Bono is also a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Cervical Spine Research Society, and the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, holding or having held many leadership positions in these societies as well.

Research

Dr. Bono’s research is focused on assessing the results of common spinal conditions, focusing on patient-reported outcomes.

Clinical Interests:

• Adult spine surgery
• Cervical stenosis
• Herniated disc
• Lumbar stenosis
• Myelopathy
• Radiculopathy
• Spondylolisthesis
• Spondylosis

Medical Education

• MD, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine
• Residency, UMDNJ New Jersey Medical School
• Fellowship, UC San Diego Medical Center

American Board Certifications

• Orthopaedic Surgery, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery

Publications

Select publications:

• Makanji H, Schoenfeld AJ, Bhalla A, Bono CM. Critical analysis of trends in lumbar fusion for degenerative disorders revisited: influence of technique on fusion rate and clinical outcomes. Eur Spine J. 2018 Mar 15. Miller LE, McGirt MJ, Garfin SR, Bono CM. Association of Annular Defect Width After Lumbar Discectomy With Risk of Symptom Recurrence and Reoperation: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Comparative Studies. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2018 Mar 1;43(5):E308-E315.
• Fehlings MG, Kopjar B, Ibrahim A, Tetreault LA, Arnold PM, Defino H, Kale SS, Yoon ST, Barbagallo GM, Bartels RHM, Zhou Q, Vaccaro AR, Zileli M, Tan G, Yukawa Y, Brodke DS, Shaffrey CI, Santos de Moraes O, Woodard EJ, Scerrati M, Tanaka M, Toyone T, Sasso RC, Janssen ME, Gokaslan ZL, Alvarado M, Bolger C, Bono CM, Dekutoski MB. Geographic variations in clinical presentation and outcomes of decompressive surgery in patients with symptomatic degenerative cervical myelopathy: analysis of a prospective, international multicenter cohort study of 757 patients. Spine J. 2018 Apr;18(4):593-605.
• Schoenfeld AJ, Sturgeon DJ, Burns CB, Hunt TJ, Bono CM. Establishing benchmarks for the volume-outcome relationship for common lumbar spine surgical procedures. Spine J. 2018 Jan;18(1):22-28.
• En'Wezoh DC, Leonard DA, Schoenfeld AJ, Harris MB, Zampini JM, Bono CM. Relationship between size of disc and early postoperative outcomes after lumbar discectomy. Arch Orthop Trauma Surg. 2017 Jun;137(6):805-811.