Gazi Yaşargil: Founder of Microneurosurgery

 

Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil is a Turkish medical scientist and neurosurgeon (born on July 6, 1925 in Lice, Diyarbakır, Turkey). He is the founder of microneurosurgery. Yaşargil treated epilepsy and brain tumors with instruments of his own design. From 1953 until his retirement in 1993 he was first resident, chief resident and then professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Zurich and the Zurich University Hospital. In 1999 he was honored as "Neurosurgery’s Man of the Century 1950-1999" at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting.

After attending Ankara Atatürk Lisesi and Ankara University in Ankara, Turkey between 1931 and 1943, he went to Germany to study medicine at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany. His genius in developing microsurgical techniques for use in cerebrovascular neurosurgery transformed the outcomes of patients with conditions that were previously inoperable. In 1969 Yaşargil became associate professor and in 1973 professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Zurich succeeding his mentor, Prof. Krayenbuhl. Over the next 20 years, he carried out laboratory work and clinical applications of micro techniques, performing 7500 intracranial operations in Zurich until his retirement in 1993. In 1994, Yaşargil accepted an appointment as Professor of Neurosurgery at the College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock where he is still active in the practice of micro-neurosurgery, research, and teaching.

Together with Harvey Cushing, Yaşargil is hailed as one of the greatest neurosurgeons of the twentieth century. He has helped three generations of neurosurgeons, defining what is possible in neurosurgery, and then demonstrating how to achieve it. In the micro-neurosurgical anatomical laboratory in Zurich he trained around 3000 colleagues from all continents and representing all surgical specialties.

He is married to Dianne Bader-Gibson Yaşargil, who was the nurse in charge of the operating suite by his side since 1973, and is still assisting him in surgery.

Yaşargil published his surgical experiences in 330 papers and 13 monographs. The six-volume publication Microneurosurgery (1984–1996, Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart-New York) is the comprehensive review of his broad experiences and a major contribution to the neurosurgery literature.

Sources:

Wikipedia

http://www.neurochirurgie-karlsruhe-online.de

HUGO KRAYENBÜHL (1902-1985)

 

 

 

                                                     

HUGO KRAYENBÜHL was born in Zihlschlacht, Switzerland on December 3, 1902. He studied medicine in Geneva, Kiel, Paris, and Zürich. He became a Doctor of Medicine from University of Zurich in 1928

After postgraduate training Dr. Krayenbühl worked from 1934 to 1936 at the London Hospital, London, England, under Sir Hugh Cairns. Through Mr. Cairns he became familiar with the techniques of Harvey Cushing and the traditions of the Cushing school.

Upon his return to Zürich in 1936, Dr. Krayenbuhl worked at the Clinic of General Surgery of the University of Zurich. He began to build his own department of neurosurgery. In 1939, the Clinic was officially recognized as an independent unit, and in 1948, he was given the first chair of Neurosurgery in Switzerland.

 

Professor Hugo Krayenbühl, the founder of Swiss Neurosurgery, has not only been a brilliant surgeon and physician of highest moral standards but also an exceptional teacher. He trained not only young Swiss neurosurgeons but also a large number of foreign pupils who later returned to their countries of origin and are now leaders in their field. It was his strong belief that progress in every medical field is only possible with international cooperation. Therefore, as a president of the Société de Neurochirurgie de Langue Française he organized the first European Congress of Neurosurgery that took place from July 16 to 19, 1959 in Zürich. This led to the foundation of the European Association of Neurological Surgeons in 1971 in Prague whose primary object is “to promote the free interchange of neurosurgical knowledge and experience among the member Societies”.

Through his research and publications, he made contributions to many areas of neurosurgery. Since 1941, when his "Habilitationsschrift" on aneurysms of the brains was published, he was concerned with disturbances of cerebral venous, carotid, and vertebral thrombosis and spasms of the cerebral arteries. His endeavors in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic problems of aneurysms of the brain, culminated in the publication of The Cerebral Angiography, 1965, with M.G. Yasargil. This work has been translated into Italian (1967) and English (1968). His total number of published books and papers was more than 180.

In conjunction with Prof. Yasargil, he developed microsurgery for aneurysms. This highly developed technique brought patients from all over the world. Students came from across Europe to study at the Neurosurgical Clinic. This made Zürich a center for vascular surgery respected internationally.

Sources:

The society of Neurological Surgeons, USA
M. Gazi Yaşargil.  Hugo Krayenbühl — An Appreciation . Advances and Technical Standards in Neurosurgery Volume 11, 1984, pp 1-3