Prof. Dr. İlhan Elmacı is one of Turkey’s leading neurosurgery experts. Born in Niğde, Elmacı began his educational journey in Adana, completing his primary, secondary, and high school education in this city. He then pursued his medical studies at Ankara University’s Faculty of Medicine.
In 1987, he commenced his specialization at the Bakırköy Mental and Neurological Diseases Hospital, in Dr. Zeki Oral’s clinic, completing his neurosurgery specialization in 1993. During this time, he received significant training in micronurosurgery at the University of Zurich’s “M. Gazi Yaşargil Clinic.”
From 1993 to 2003, Elmacı served as an assistant professor and lecturer at Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, in Prof. Necmettin Pamir’s clinic. During this period, he underwent extensive training in neurooncology and vascular neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. He earned his Associate Professorship in Neurosurgery in 2003.
Between 2004 and 2010, Prof. Dr. Elmacı served as the Clinic Chief at the Ministry of Health’s Göztepe Training and Research Hospital, during which he facilitated the clinic’s accreditation by the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS). He also completed his training in endoscopic skull base surgery at the University of Pittsburgh during this period.
In 2010, Elmacı joined the Acıbadem University Faculty of Medicine, where he obtained the title of Professor of Neurosurgery. He founded the Department of Brain and Nerve Surgery at Medipol University Faculty of Medicine in 2012 and served as the Head of Neurosurgery at the Memorial Health Group Istanbul Hospitals from 2014 to 2018. He then worked at the Acıbadem Health Group’s Maslak Hospital between 2018 and 2021.
Since October 2021, he has been working with his experienced team at his private clinic in Fulya.
In addition to his career, Prof. Dr. İlhan Elmacı is the founder of the Skull Base Association and served as its president from 2016 to 2021. He is also a member of the executive committee of the European Skull Base Society (ESBS).
Prof. Elmacı has made significant contributions to the field of neurosurgery, with 114 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, 22 in national journals, over 200 presentations, books, and book chapters.
His areas of expertise include brain, skull base, and spinal tumors, pituitary adenomas, brain hemorrhages and vascular diseases, back and neck pain, hernias and displacements, hydrocephalus, treatment of trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm, cerebellar ptosis and syringomyelia treatment, spasticity treatment, and ethical principles of “as much as necessary and life quality-preserving treatment” planning. His treatment methods involve advanced techniques such as microsurgery, endoscopic surgeries, neuromonitoring, and neuronavigation.
Prof. Dr. İlhan Elmacı’s ethical principle can be summarized as “as much as necessary and life quality-preserving treatment.”