belhan akpinar

Dr. Akpinar was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1962. After finishing elementary school in St. Louis in USA, he graduated from TED Ankara College in 1979. He then started Ankara University Medical School and graduated in 1985.

After completing his obligatory service he started the cardiaovascular surgery residency program in University of Istanbul Cardiology Institute. In 1989 he first went to Utrecht (The Netherlands)  for one year and then continued his training in Aalst OLV Hospital for four years until 1993. After completing his training he returned to Istanbul and started working in Florence Nightingale Hospital as a chief resident.

He became associated professor in 1998 and professor in 2005 in the same institution. He became the chief of Cardiovascular Surgery Department in 2001 and continued this duty until 2020.

In 2020 he became staff in Koç University Hospital Cardiovascular Surgery Department and has been working there since then. He also has a private practice in Medica Medical Services.

Dr. Akpinar’s main interest is adult cardiac surgery. That includes coronary revascularisation, valve surgery (repair, replacement), aneurysm surgery and carotid surgery.

He started the first robotic surgery program in Turkey in 2004 and has been one of the key figures in robotic and endoscopic cardiac surgery in the area with over 2000 cases. These minimally invasive surgeries are mostly mitral valve repair and MidCAB.

Other areas of interest:

- EVAR
- TEVAR
- Varicous veins

Dr. Akpınar has over 250 national and international medical publications.

He is the president of EABSociety. He is a member of TSCVS, TCS, EACTS and STS.