title: Sensory reinnervation of free flaps in reconstruction of the breast and the upper and lower extremities.
abstract: There is long-standing debate about sensate versus non-sensate free microvascular flaps among microsurgeons. The principle of connecting not only the vascular supply, but also sensitive nerves, in free tissue transfer is attractive. However, increased operating time and partial spontaneous innervation led to the common decision to restrict microsurgical tissue transfer to the vascular anastomosis and to leave the nerves "untreated". Nevertheless, in special cases such as breast reconstruction or extremity reconstruction, the question about sensory nerve coaptation of the flaps remains open. We present our experience with free microvascular tissue transfer for breast and extremity reconstruction and compare the data with previous literature and conclude that most free flap surgeries do not benefit from nerve coaptation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic-, Hand- and Reconstructive Microsurgery, St. Marien Krankenhaus Berlin, Berlin 12249, Germany.
authors.forename: Nektarios
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sinis
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic-, Hand- and Reconstructive Microsurgery, St. Marien Krankenhaus Berlin, Berlin 12249, Germany.
authors.forename: Androniki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lamia
authors.affiliation: Department of Handsurgery, Microsurgery and Reconstructive Surgery of the Breast, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart 70199, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Helml
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gudrun
authors.affiliation: Department of Handsurgery, Microsurgery and Reconstructive Surgery of the Breast, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart 70199, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schoeller
authors.affiliation: Department of Handsurgery, Microsurgery and Reconstructive Surgery of the Breast, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart 70199, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Werdin
keywords: breast reconstruction; dermatoplasty; extremity reconstruction; free microvascular tissue transfer; free tissue flap; free tissue transfer flap; mammaplasty; non-sensate flap; sensate flap