Can Yerebakan, MD

Can Yerebakan, MD, PhD, is the associate chief of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and director of the Congenital CT Surgery Fellowship. He is also a principal investigator in the Center for Cardiovascular Research.

Prior to joining Nationwide Children’s and the Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Dr. Yerebakan was the associate chief of cardiovascular surgery at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

During the last decade he has received multiple national and international awards for his academic efforts and experimental collaborative research. Dr. Yerebakan is interested in improving outcomes of children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). Therefore, as the director of the hybrid program in his former institution, his clinical research and publications concentrated on advancing current strategies in the surgical and interventional treatment of HLHS. He is a world-known expert in the hybrid treatment for the hypoplastic left heart.

Dr. Yerebakan has contributed to over 140 publications in high-impact journals in three different languages.He has first and co-authored more than 150 oral presentations/posters in national and international meetings. Dr. Yerebakan is an active reviewer in high-impact journals. He serves in the editorial boards of JTCVS, EJCTS and ICVTS among other journals. Dr. Yerebakan is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery, German Society for Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery. 

Throughout his career Dr. Yerebakan has mentored many international doctoral students, postdoc research fellows and clinical fellows. Clinically, he was working on the neurological outcome of children following heart surgery with an international research collaboration with the University of Giessen, Germany that resulted in five doctoral theses and multiple publications.