Professor Keyoumars Ashkan MBE

Professor Ashkan is a leading neurosurgeon based at King's College Hospital, London. He has expertise in degenerative spine disease, including the management of back, neck, and arm pain, sciatica, and peripheral nerve disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome. He also has interests in neuromodulation surgery and brain tumours. He is trained in deep brain stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, and occipital nerve stimulation for the treatment of movement disorders, pain, and headaches, as well as image-guided minimally invasive and stereotactic surgery for brain tumours, including awake craniotomies and brain mapping.  He is also one of the few UK-based surgeons trained in both Gamma and Cyberknife radiosurgery.

His interests are in the following areas:

• Visualase
• Deep Brain Stimulation
• Spinal Cord Stimulation
• Occipital Nerve Stimulation
• DCVax Immunotherapy
• Awake Craniotomy
• Surgery for Brain Tumours
• Gamma-knife and Cyberknife Radiosurgery
• Lumbar and cervical laminectomy and discectomy.
• Parkinson's disease
• Essential Tremor
• Brain Tumours
• Spine Disease
• Back Pain
• Sciatica

Professor Ashkan was one of a handful of neurosurgeons in the UK to be awarded a professorship. He completed dual postgraduate training in medicine and surgery and earned his MRCP in 1997 and his FRCS the following year. He then undertook higher specialist training in general neurosurgery in London and was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Neurosurgery (FRCS SN) in 2002.

During his subspecialist training in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, he undertook a fellowship in France with Professor Benabid, who is considered the founder of modern deep brain stimulation surgery. He was appointed as a Consultant Neurosurgeon at King's College Hospital in January 2007 before being promoted to the position of Professor.

Professor Ashkan is the UK Lead for the Genomics England programme for brain tumours. He is also President of the British Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Chairman of the Neurosurgery Section of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society, Chair of King's Neuroscience Clinical Trial Unit, and Deputy Lead for King's Neuroscience Research Advisory Committee.

He has published more than 850 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and book chapters, and he is an Associate Editor or reviewer for several journals.

His surgery to remove a brain tumour while the patient remained awake to play the violin attracted worldwide attention. He was awarded an MBE for services to neurosurgery in the 2025 New Year Honours list.

Outside of work, Professor Ashkan enjoys playing the piano and has completed a degree and diploma in music.