Medical Helpline 116 117
Medical Helpline 116 117

Mika Niemelä

Head Physician, Head of Neurosurgery, Professor

Head of HUCH Neurosurgery

Education

MD: 1989, University of Helsinki, Finland; Board certified neurosurgeon: 1997, University of Helsinki, Finland; PhD: 2000, University of Helsinki, Finland. Doctoral thesis: “Hemangioblastomas of the CNS and retina: impact of von Hippel-Lindau disease”; Diploma in Health Administration 2004.

Areas of publications: Cerebrovascular diseases, brain tumors, basic research on aneurysm wall and genetics of intracranial aneurysms

Specialities

Clinical interests: Vascular, skull base and brain tumors, spine

Languages
English, Finnish, German, Swedish
Positions of responsibility

Visits: Department of Neurosurgery,
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston USA, 2001-2002; ‘Major talks’: Stuart Rowe 2019, Donaghy 2020

Memberships: Finnish Neurosurgical Society (Treasurer 1995-1997; President 2004-2007); Scandinavian Neurosurgical Society (Vice President 2001-2003); AANS (Member 2001- ); EANS (Training Committee Member 2007-2011, Vascular Committee 2012-); CNS (Publications Committee, Neuroscience committee); WFNS (Cerebrovascular Diseases and Therapy Committee 2008- ); The Maire Taponen Foundation (Board Member 2012-); Petri Honkasen säätiö (Board Member 2013-2015); HYKSin Ltd. (Director - neurosurgery 2012- ), WANS 2015-

Supervised PhD theses:

2021 Anni Pohjola MD:
AVMs, quality of life and effect of smoking
(Opponent: Karl Schaller, Geneva)

2017 Jarno Satopää MD:
Intracerebral hemorrhage – neurosurgical treatment and prognosis evaluation
(Opponent: A. David Mendelow, University Newcastle upon Tyne)

2017 Mardjono Tjahjadi MD:
Helsinki experience on surgical approaches for clivus region vertebrobasilar artery aneurysms
(Opponent Vladimir Benés, University of Prague)

2015 Atte Karppinen MD:
Outcome after transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary adenoma
(Opponent Paul Gardner, Univeristy of Pittsburgh)

2015 Hanna Lehto MD:
Aneurysms of the vertebral and posterior inferior cerebellar arteries
(Opponent: Andreas Gruber, University of Vienna)

2014 Serge Marbacher MD:
Endovascular treatment of experimental aneurysms – pathobiology of healing response
(Opponent: Jacques Morcos, University of Miami)

2014 Ahmed Elsharkawy MD:
Saccular middle cerebral aneurysms
(Opponent Ugur Türe, Yeditepe University, Istanbul)

2013 Anna Piippo MD:
Intracranial dural AV-fistulas
(Opponent Ali F. Krisht, University of Arkansas)

2012 Päivi Koronay-Pál MD PhD:
Pediatric cerebal aneurysms
(Opponent: Michael T. Lawton, University of California San Francisco)

2012 Emilia Gáal MD:
on aneurysm genetics and growth factor induced angiogenesis
(Opponent: Iver Langmoen, Oslo University)

2010 Juri Kivelev MD:
on brain and spinal cavernomas
(Opponent: Murat Günel, Yale University)

2010 Riikka Tulamo MD
on inflammation and complement activation in the aneurysm wall
(Opponent: Peter Vajkoczy, Charité, University of Berlin)

2009 Johan Marjamaa MD:
on experimental MRI in rats and mice
(Opponent: Fady Charbel, University of Chicago)

2009 Martin Lehecka MD:
on distal anterior cerebral artery aneurysms
(Opponent: Robert F Spetzler, Barrow Neurological Institute, University of Arizona)