Skip to main content
2025 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting Main banner
Back

    M. Gazi Yasargil, MD

    Professor of Neurosurgery
    Yeditepe University School of Medicine

    Professor M. Gazi Yaşargil was born on July 6, 1925 in Lice, Türkiye, and his journey in medicine led him from studying in Ankara and Jena to completing his medical degree at the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1949. After a rotation program in neuroanatomy, neurology, psychiatry, internal medicine, and general surgery (1950–1952), he began his neurosurgical residency (1953–1960) at University Hospital Zurich under Professors Hugo Krayenbühl, G. Weber, and E. Zander. He rapidly advanced in his field, becoming a private docent in 1960, Assistant Professor in 1965, and, in 1973, Ordinarius Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at University Hospital Zurich—a position he held until his retirement in January 1993. Early in his career, Professor Yaşargil contributed to the development of carotid, vertebral, and orbital angiography, introduced stereotactic surgery in 1957 using high-frequency coagulation techniques, operated on over 800 patients with various movement disorders, and introduced the technique of spinal fusion using a telescopic screw device in 1961.
    Continuing his innovative work, from October 1965 to December 1966 he refined microvascular suturing techniques at the University of Vermont Medical Center, pioneering procedures that led to the first cerebral bypass surgery in 1967. His later career saw him developing transcisternal approaches for cranial and spinal lesions, which culminated in his eight-volume monograph, “Microneurosurgery” (1984–1996), summarizing outcomes on several thousand patients. Professor Yaşargil also advanced surgical education by demonstrating microneurosurgical procedures via television and establishing courses at various international centers, including at Mount Sinai Hospital (New York), in Cincinnati, and in St. Louis. His innovations extended to the development of the counter balanced operating microscope, hydraulic arm-support, specialized microsurgical instruments, and numerous techniques for treating occluded cerebral arteries, aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, tumors, and spinal disorders. In November 2013, he was appointed Professor of Neurosurgery at Yeditepe University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Türkiye, where he continues to practice, teach, lecture, and publish, leaving behind a prolific legacy of 14 monographs, 41 handbook contributions, 275 journal publications, and numerous international honors including the “Yaşargil Lectures.”

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

    Presentation(s):