Rolling admission · Istanbul · Delivered in English
Follow how a neurosurgery department selects patients for deep-brain stimulation and epilepsy surgery, plans each target from imaging and reviews patients afterwards — on the functional cases the department schedules during your dates.
What you see depends on the department's clinical calendar during your placement; the list below describes the department's usual scope, not a guaranteed programme.
Deep-brain stimulation is an elective, function-directed operation, so candidacy is settled before anyone discusses a target. In Parkinson's disease the classic questions are whether motor symptoms still respond to levodopa, whether motor fluctuations or dyskinesia limit daily life despite optimised medication, and whether cognition, mood and imaging make surgery reasonable. Essential tremor and dystonia raise different questions about disability and medication response. A levodopa challenge, neuropsychological assessment and MRI are typical parts of the work-up, and the decision is typically shared between neurology, neurosurgery and neuropsychology, often with psychiatry.
Target choice follows the clinical problem — the subthalamic nucleus or globus pallidus internus in Parkinson's disease, the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus for tremor, and the pallidal target for dystonia — and is usually planned on MRI fused with stereotactic CT. Departments differ in whether leads are placed with the patient awake, using microelectrode recording and test stimulation, or asleep with intraoperative imaging confirmation. Observers follow how the team reasons about these choices; where a patient is awake during part of the procedure, the team may limit who is in the room.
Epilepsy surgery follows a separate pathway. Resective or disconnective surgery is considered when seizures persist despite adequate trials of anti-seizure medication and the evidence — semiology, video-EEG, MRI, neuropsychology and sometimes invasive recordings — points to a resectable focus; neuromodulation is considered when it does not. After either kind of operation, care continues in follow-up: device programming, medication adjustment and repeated assessment, often led by neurology. Programming clinics are observed only where the department schedules them during your dates — confirmed after review.
Where the neurosurgery page describes the whole department — cranial tumour, neurovascular, paediatric, trauma and spinal work — this page concentrates on functional procedures: deep-brain stimulation, epilepsy surgery and the selection and follow-up around them. Endoscopic cranial-base and endoscopic spinal work are separate focuses.
Suits medical students in their clinical years and graduate physicians considering neurosurgery or neurology who want to see how a functional case moves from patient selection and imaging-based planning to theatre and follow-up.
Suits neurosurgeons with a specialist qualification who state functional neurosurgery and DBS as their interest within the neurosurgery department; because functional cases run only where the calendar allows, a full clinical cycle gives the broadest view.
Both routes are strictly observational: observers attend theatre and clinic without patient contact, do not scrub or assist, and are not assessed on any procedure.
| Clinical Observership | Clinical Fellowship | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 1, 2 or 4 weeks (extension possible on request) | 12 to 24 months, agreed with the host department |
| Who it is for | Medical students in clinical years and graduate physicians from outside Turkey | Recognised specialists and family physicians seeking advanced exposure beyond standard specialty training |
| Format | Full-time, strictly observational — outpatient clinics, operating theatre, ward rounds, case discussions | Extended observational attachment to one department: daily practice, service structure and specific techniques |
| Certificate | Certificate of attendance issued by the host hospital and signed by its Medical Director | Certificate on completion issued under the accreditation of the affiliated university school of medicine |
| Start | Rotations typically begin on a Monday; dates are agreed individually | Start date planned around the date you request and the department's capacity |
One online application for both routes. State Functional Neurosurgery & DBS as your focus in your objectives; ATDERA reviews the file and prepares it for the Neurosurgery department, then replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
Already started? The application page picks up where you left off.
ATDERA Global Limited (Companies House No. 17173428, registered in England and Wales) coordinates this programme for a university teaching hospital in Istanbul. ATDERA is not a hospital and does not provide clinical care; admission decisions and certificates are the host hospital's.
One online application covers both routes and all twenty-one specialties — details, programme choice and documents in five short steps. ATDERA reviews the file and replies with next steps, typically within two working days.
