Microsurgical Procedures
The Microsurgical team located at California Pacific Medical Center's Davies Campus, specializes in reconstructive, replantation, and transplantation microsurgery for fingers, hands, extremities, and facial parts such as scalps, ears, noses, lips, and tongues.
The Microsurgery team has experience with thousands of replants and microvascular transplants, including more than 350 toe-to-hand transplants and more than 300 multiple microvascular transplants.
After recovery from microsurgery, most patients return to their previous employment or are rehabilitated for other employment or skilled professions.
The following are made possible with microsurgery:
- Emergency Replantation
- Tissue Transplantation
- Nerve Repairs and Nerve Grafting
Microsurgical Reconstruction includes:
- Limb Salvage
- Hand and Upper Extremity Reconstruction
- Thumb and Finger Replacements with Toe(s) or Toe to Thumb Transfers
- Functional Muscle Transplants to the Extremities
- Facial Paralysis Re-animation with Cross-Facial Nerve Grafts and Functional Muscle Transplants
- Peripheral Nerve and Brachial Plexus Acute Repair and Nerve Grafting
- Breast Reconstruction with Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforator (DIEP) Flap Procedure
- Correction of Severe Functional and Cosmetic Defects Produced by Injury, Surgery, Cancer or Congenital Anomalies.
Since its inception in 1970, the Microsurgical team has accomplished many firsts in microsurgery.
In 1976, the first scalp replant in the United States in was performed at the Buncke Clinic. (The world's first was performed by an Australian surgeon who trained at the Buncke Clinic). Also in 1976, the first four-finger replant from a dominant hand was performed. Worldwide, in 1979, the clinic was the first to transplant the serratus muscle (a back muscle) to the face for facial paralysis; in 1986, the first scalp transplant between identical twins; and in 1997, the first tongue replant.
