About the author
Murat Tuncer, MD
Professor of Internal Medicine and Nephrology. He reviews the medical reports sent to BookingHospital, and tells patients honestly whether travelling to Türkiye for a transplant is worthwhile — including when the answer is no.
In short
- Graduate of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine (English programme).
- Professor of Internal Medicine and Nephrology since 2013, working in kidney transplantation.
- Since 1998 he has taken part in the transplantation and follow-up of more than 10,000 kidney transplant patients, as part of the team he leads.
- Author of Trasplante de riñón: con preguntas y respuestas (Istanbul, 2020), the book the patient guides on this site are adapted from.
What he does at BookingHospital
Every case that reaches BookingHospital is reviewed by a physician before anything is promised. In practice that means reading the patient's blood tests, imaging and previous reports, saying which questions still need answering, and giving a straight opinion on whether an evaluation in Türkiye makes sense.
Sometimes that opinion is that it does not. A patient who is told this early is spared a journey, a bill and a disappointment.
Clinical work
Prof. Dr. Murat Tuncer has worked in kidney transplantation since 1998. His team handles the preparation for transplantation — evaluating the donor and the recipient, and the immunological work this requires — and the long-term follow-up that decides how many years a transplanted kidney actually works. The operation itself is performed by the transplant surgeons.
His particular interest is the patients other centres turn away: those with no matching donor, with blood group incompatibility, with hepatitis B or C, or who have already lost one transplant.
- El first seven-way domino paired exchange performed outside the Americas.
- El first ABO-incompatible kidney transplants in Türkiye — five cases, published in 2007.
- Among the first studies worldwide of transplantation from HBsAg-positive living donors.
"Organ transplantation is teamwork." — these results belong to the whole team.
His own donor study
One question every family asks is what happens to the donor afterwards. Rather than quote other centres, Prof. Tuncer followed up 135 of his own living kidney donors and published what happened to them. Those findings are written up here: ¿Qué te pasa si donas un riñón?.
The book behind these guides
Trasplante de riñón: con preguntas y respuestas (Istanbul, 2020) was written for patients and their families, in 31 chapters, in the form of the questions they actually ask. The guides on this site are adapted from it, with references added and with the details that matter to someone travelling from abroad.
- Kidney transplant guide — 11 articles
- Liver transplant guide — 4 articles, based on the current European and American liver transplantation guidelines
Memberships
- Founding president, İstanbul Organ Nakli Derneği (Istanbul Organ Transplantation Association)
- Turkish Society of Nephrology (Türk Nefroloji Derneği)
- Turkish Transplantation Society (Türkiye Organ Nakli Derneği, TOND)
- Türkiye Organ Nakli Kuruluşları Koordinasyon Derneği (TONKD), the association coordinating Türkiye's transplant centres
- European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT)
He sees patients in Turkish and English.
Send your reports for a physician's opinion
Send your latest blood tests, imaging and the reason you were given if you were turned down. You will get an honest answer — including when that answer is no.
Aviso médico. This page describes the author of the patient guides on this site. It is not medical advice and does not establish a doctor–patient relationship. Decisions about transplantation are made by a transplant team after detailed testing.
