Scott P. Leary, MD, FCNS is a board-certified neurosurgeon with a fellowship in complex spine surgery. He practices with Senta Clinic, Division of Neurosurgery in San Diego, California, where his clinical practice and research focus on the comprehensive care of spinal disorders. These include spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, spinal trauma, scoliosis, failed spine surgery syndrome, spinal tumors, and neck and back pain.
Dr. Leary was born in Vancouver and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He was awarded an academic scholarship to attend Brigham Young University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was recognized on the University’s Dean’s List, International Student Honor Roll, and entered the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
Dr. Leary obtained his medical degree from the prestigious Washington University in St. Louis, where his medical school class was ranked #1 in the United States. After his residency in neurological surgery, Dr. Leary completed his first fellowship in neurosurgery, where he specialized in Stereotactic Radiosurgery at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. During this fellowship, Dr. Leary authored three articles that were featured on the cover of the international journal, Neurosurgery.
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For his second fellowship, Dr. Leary focused on complex spine surgery. Here, Dr. Leary gained expertise in minimally-invasive spine surgery, artificial disc replacement surgery, endoscopic spine surgery, dynamic spinal stabilization, and complex spinal reconstructive procedures. This unique combination makes Dr. Leary one of very few neurosurgeons to have completed a neurosurgery residency and an orthopedic complex spine surgery fellowship.
Maintaining his commitment to cutting-edge innovation, Dr. Leary is active in clinical research studies and currently serves as a Principal Investigator for FDA-regulated clinical trials to treat symptomatic degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis. Additionally, he has introduced a stem cell therapy procedure called Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate (BMAC therapy) into his practice that is another ground-breaking treatment for degenerative disc disease.
Since joining Senta Clinic, Division of Neurosurgery, Dr. Leary has been honored as one of America’s Top Surgeons by the Consumers Research Council in 2007, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. He has been featured on television and in print as an expert on brain tumors and back pain and for performing novel surgical procedures. He was honored as a finalist for the Health Care Champion Award for Innovation and Research in San Diego by the San Diego Business Journal. The following year, he was selected to be on the cover of the 2009 Scripps Annual Report titled “healing stories.” Dr. Leary has been recognized locally in San Diego Magazine’s Top Doctors— 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024. He has also received the prestigious, peer-nominated Castle Connolly National Top Doctors Award for Neurological Surgery for six consecutive years, 2017-2022.
Dr. Leary is currently the Chief of Spine Surgery Committee at Scripps Memorial Hospital-La Jolla and is affiliated with Scripps Memorial Hospital (La Jolla and Encinitas), Scripps Mercy Hospital, and Sharp Grossmont Hospital, as well as with University Ambulatory Surgery Center.
