Prof. Mert Şentürk, MD

Prof. Mert Şentürk, MD is an anesthesiologist with more than 36 years in medicine. He works in the Anesthesiology & Reanimation unit of Acibadem Atasehir Hospital in İstanbul, Türkiye, having joined Acibadem Health Group in 2022. His practice centers on thoracic and cardiothoracic anesthesia, including anesthesia and intensive care management for lung transplantation, and on the ventilation and pain-control techniques used around thoracic surgery.

Dr. Şentürk graduated from Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in 1989 and, after working at Sanliurfa Tılfındır Health Center in 1990, completed his training in Anesthesiology and Reanimation at Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine in 1995. From 1996 to 1997 he served as an anesthesiology specialist at Kyrenia Military Hospital. He held DAAD scholarships at the Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany (1992–1993), at the Department of Anesthesiology, Heidelberg-Rohrbach Thoracic Clinic (1998) and at the Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Otto-van Guericke University (2002), and spent a further period at the Otto-van Guericke University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, in 2010. At Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Reanimation, he was Associate Professor from 2003 to 2009 and Professor from 2009 to 2022.

Clinical focus

Dr. Şentürk’s listed areas of expertise include thoracic anesthesia, cardiothoracic anesthesia, and lung transplantation anesthesia and intensive care management. Within the operating room, his focus is on one-lung ventilation, intraoperative mechanical ventilation and protective ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure during thoracic surgery. For pain control he uses regional techniques such as thoracic paravertebral block, erector spinae plane block and intercostal nerve block, and he addresses both acute and chronic postthoracotomy pain. His areas of expertise also include airway management for patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection and enhanced recovery after surgery protocols for colorectal surgery.

His clinical work is closely linked to research and professional activity. He is Principal Investigator of the international PROTHOR study on protective ventilation during one-lung ventilation and has served as a steering committee member and national coordinator of international studies. He was President of GKDAYBD (Chest Cardiovascular Anesthesia Intensive Care Association) from 2014 to 2016, editor of the Journal of Turkish Anesthesia and Intensive Care Society from 2016 to 2018, a member of the ESAIC (European Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care) respiratory subcommittee from 2011 to 2015, and a scientific committee member of EACTAIC (European Association of Cardiothoracic Anesthesia) from 2016 to 2019, where he has also chaired the Thoracic Anesthesia scientific committee. He is a corresponding member of DGAI (German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care), a member of the TARD (Turkish Society of Anesthesiology Reanimation) Thoracic Surgery Anesthesia Working Group, and has sat on the scientific committee of the Milano SMART meeting since 2017. His publications, dated between 2002 and 2022, cover lung transplantation anesthesia, one-lung ventilation, regional analgesia for thoracoscopic surgery, postthoracotomy pain and enhanced recovery protocols.

How Dr. Şentürk works with international patients

Dr. Şentürk consults in Turkish and English, and interpreters can be arranged for other languages. The Acibadem international patient team coordinates the collection of prior reports and imaging, arranges appointments and organizes the hospital visit. A first consultation typically covers the patient’s history and symptoms, a review of existing imaging and previous treatments, a clinical examination and a discussion of the options. Video consultation is available, allowing patients abroad to speak with Dr. Şentürk before travelling.