Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil (1925–2025)

Abstract Mahmut Gazi Yaşargil passed away just 3 weeks before his 100th birthday. “He has not only been a brilliant surgeon and physician of highest moral standards, but also an exceptional teacher”—This statement was made by Yaşargil in 1984 in appreciation of Hugo Krayenbühl, his former chairman in Zurich [1]. Without any doubt, this also applies to him, but it should be complemented by recognizing his international influence in introducing microneurosurgical methods into neurosurgery. At the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting in 1999 he was honored as “Neurosurgery’s Man of the Century 1950–1999” by the editors and advisory board of the journal Neurosurgery . In his laudation, John Tew summarizes: “His genius in developing microsurgical techniques for use in cerebrovascular neurosurgery has transformed the outcomes of patients with conditions that were previously inoperable” [2]. A biography published 10 years ago described Yaşargil as the “father of modern neurosurgery” [3]; in an obituary published by the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, this was specified as “father of modern microneurosurgery” [4].