Esen Karamursel Akpek, M.D.

Director, Ocular Surface Disease & Dry Eye Clinic Associate Professor of Ophthalmology Division of Cornea, Cataract, & External Diseases The Wilmer Eye Institute The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Esen Karamursel Akpek, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has been on the faculty of the Wilmer Eye Institute since 1999. Dr. Akpek is world renowned for her expertise in the surgical treatment of corneal diseases. She performs full thickness and partial thickness donor corneal transplantation as well as artificial corneal transplantation. Dr. Akpek also specializes in difficult and challenging cataract surgeries and complicated cases of anterior segment reconstruction procedures. 

Dr. Akpek´s current research focuses on the development of novel procedures and devices for corneal surgery. She is the recipient of the prestigious Cora Verhagen Immunology Prize, American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement Award and other awards and has published and co-authored numerous scientific articles. She has been consistently selected among the “Guide to America’s Top Ophthalmologists” as well as one of the “Best Doctors in America” by the Consumers’ Research Council of America, in the field of cataract surgery and corneal transplantation.

Dr Akpek serves as the Director of the new Ocular Surface Disease and Dry Eye Clinic. She, along with other members of the Dry Eye Team, cares for patients with inflammatory eye disorders, allergic and immunologic diseases of the cornea and the conjunctiva, scleritis, and uveitis. 

Dr. Akpek received her medical training at the Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. Following her internship and residency training, she completed ophthalmology subspecialty training in Ocular Immunology and Uveitis at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed a fellowship program in Cornea, Cataract, and External Disease at the Wilmer Eye Institute, The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Akpek sees patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She also attends the Jerome L. Greene Sjogren’s Syndrome Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center one day per month.

For appointments with Dr. Akpek, call: 410-955-7927

Dr. Akpek is also doing extensive research and working on patenting a new keratoprosthesis. Please click the following link if you wish to support Dr. Akpek's work by making a donation: http://giving.jhu.edu/akpek.

To view an interview with Dr.Akpek on artificial cornea transplantation, click the link below:
Transforming Influences- Esen Akpek, M.D.

Read Dr. Akpek's CV