kevin-yoo-md

Dr. Kevin Yoo grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and excelled in his studies in high school such that he was awarded the distinguished Morehead Scholarship to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned degrees in English and Chemistry. He went on to attend Emory University School of Medicine, where he got his Doctorate in Medicine. In medical school, Dr. Yoo befriended a Senior Neurosurgical Resident, whose surgical talent and passion for his field inspired Dr. Yoo to study neurosurgery. 

He followed this Neurosurgeon to Little Rock, Arkansas onto the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences where he studied brain tumors in the graduate school Department of Anatomy and in the Department of Neurosurgery. He was then accepted into a neurosurgery residency program at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois where he received his first half of his neurosurgery residency training and then completed it at University of California at San Diego in 2003. 

He then established a neurosurgical practice in San Diego, California and has been practicing spine and neurosurgery for over 18 years. Dr. Yoo has always had a passion for patient care, which has led to his practice becoming a flourishing one. He has been trained in minimally invasive surgery of the spine and specializes in degenerative spine conditions as well as brain tumors and brain and spine trauma. Dr. Yoo is dedicated to the intimate care of every patient he treats by always making himself available to his patients. With a meticulous attention to detail, Dr. Yoo is a problem solver who strives to provide comprehensive individualized care to each of his patients. 

He understands that decisions regarding one’s health can be daunting, especially when his patient’s needs are life and limb threatening. He makes a great effort to keep his patients well-informed of their choices and maintain frequent and clear lines of communication. His greatest satisfaction comes when a patient who has been suffering for a long time comes back into his office after surgery happy and satisfied that their problems have improved. He is highly conservative in the approach to his patients regarding surgery and has most of his patients treated with conservative management. He has, however, performed thousands of surgeries over his long career in San Diego and has developed highly refined surgical skills that he uses to help many individuals live better qualities of life. 

Dr. Yoo is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the North American Spine Society and the current President of Korean-American Spine Society. He married while he was a resident and with his wife has raised three wonderful children while living in San Diego who are all now off to colleges pursuing their studies. In his spare time Dr. Yoo enjoys spending time with his family. “What little time I have I spend with my children,” he says. “Just being with them is something I treasure as now they are off to colleges and then it will just be memories.”  

Medical Education

Emory University School of Medicine, MD

Residencies

Loyola University Medical Center, Department of Neurosurgery
University of California, San Diego, Division of Neurosurgery

Office Locations

Encinitas – T: (760) 436-8881 | 477 N. El Camino Real, Ste. A308, Encinitas, CA 92024

La Jolla – T: (858) 926-7011 | 4150 Regents Park Row, Ste. 345, La Jolla, CA 92037