My 25 years in neurosurgery are not simply the story of practicing a profession — they are the story of building a philosophy. At the heart of that philosophy lies this conviction: technology is the sharpest instrument in a surgeon’s hand, but what gives it meaning is the ability to see the human being behind each patient.
After completing my medical education at Çukurova University, I finished my residency at Dokuz Eylül University. I then moved to the United States, where I had the opportunity to specialize in spinal biomechanics at the Barrow Neurological Institute — one of the world’s leading neurosurgical centers. That experience fundamentally transformed the way I think about surgery: it taught me to see the spine not merely as an anatomical structure, but as an entire system of movement.
The title of professor I received in 2020 was not a destination — it was a threshold where responsibility grew heavier. The areas I have focused on throughout my academic career — awake craniotomy, endoscopic skull base surgery, and deep brain stimulation (DBS) — converge on a common denominator: preserving the patient’s neurological integrity while minimizing the trauma that surgery inevitably creates. This is precisely why I have integrated neuronavigation and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring into my routine practice. Technology, in this context, is not an instrument of display — it is the foundation for mapping a safe, predictable, and individually tailored surgical path for every patient.
Contributing to the literature is an inseparable part of my identity as a clinician. My 68 academic publications and more than 1,800 citations represent not merely a numerical accumulation — they are the traces of a community that thinks, questions, and advances together. Sharing knowledge with young surgeons at national and international congresses is something I regard not as a privilege, but as an intergenerational responsibility. To teach is to ensure that what is earned in the operating room continues to live on in the classroom.
As a husband and father of two, this journey has taught me one thing more: even the most technologically equipped surgeon begins to lose something the moment he forgets that the patient on his table is a human being.
I created this page to share surgical knowledge — not only with my colleagues, but with everyone, including you.
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Şenoğlu | Neurosurgeon, İzmir