The history of neurosurgery in the Turkish army is not long and complex. Neurosurgery was first practiced in the Ottoman army by Cemil Pasha, who was a general surgeon. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey was established and modern neurosurgical procedures were applied at the Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GMMA). Maj. Zinnur Rollas, M.D., was the founder of the Department of Neurosurgery at GMMA in 1957. A modern neurosurgical program and school was established in 1965 by Col. Hamit Ziya Gökalp, M.D., who completed his residency training in the US. Today, 26 military neurosurgeons are on active duty in 11 military hospitals in Turkey. All of these neurosurgeons work in modern clinics and operating theaters. In this paper, military neurosurgery in the Turkish army is reported in 3 parts: 1) the history of neurosurgery in the Turkish military, 2) the Department of Neurosurgery at the GMMA, and 3) the duties of a military neurosurgeon in the Turkish army 1)
Although the history of neurosurgery in Anatolia goes back ten thousand years, modern surgery began in Turkey in 1890. Neurosurgery in Turkey began in the first half of the 20th century. However, general surgeons began applying neurosurgical techniques back in the late 19th century. Most of these applications included procedures for craniocerebral traumas and infections.
Dr. Cemil Topuzlu (1868-1958) is the founder of modern surgery in Turkey. Dr. Abdulkadir Cahit Tuner became the first neurosurgeon with a degree in Turkey in 1923. The first neurosurgery department was established in Istanbul in 1923, and the first training program began in the late 1940s. Currently, there are almost 1200 neurosurgeons in Turkey and 75 training clinics at university hospitals, and Training and Research Hospitals of the Ministry of Health provide neurosurgery training. The current state of neurosurgery in Turkey is parallel to that of advanced Western countries. Apart from the application of neurosurgical procedures, there have been many scientific studies from Turkish neurosurgeons contributing to the total body of literature on neurosurgery 2).
Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, İnönü University, Malatya, Turkey.
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