Susan E. Mackinnon, M.D. F.A.C.S.

I want to thank Dr. Mackinnon for serving as guest editor and the exceptional group of knowledgeable and experienced authors that she has brought together to write on “Facial Paralysis” for Seminars in Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Mackinnon is a board-certified plastic surgeon known nationally and internationally for her work on facial paralysis. She received her medical degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1975 and had her general surgery training at the same university. Dr. Mackinnon completed her plastic surgery residency at the University of Toronto in 1980. Dr. Mackinnon secured additional training in a Neurosurgical Research Fellowship at the University of Toronto and a Hand Surgery Fellowship at the Raymond Curtis Hand Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Mackinnon then joined the staff at the University of Toronto. Here, funded through the Medical Research Council of Canada, she did research investigating nerve regeneration through absorbable conduits, studying the specificity of nerve regeneration and advancing this work to a clinical reality. In 1988 she received the Medal Award in Surgery from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons for this work on nerve regeneration across absorbable conduits.

Dr. Mackinnon subsequently moved to St. Louis and in 1991 joined the faculty in the Division of Plastic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, where she soon established a very successful practice and gained a reputation as an extraordinarily gifted plastic surgeon. Presently, she is Professor and Chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. She is an active member in numerous plastic surgery societies and holds several professional society offices. Her publications on the subject matter of facial paralysis are widely referenced. Dr. Mackinnon's receipt of National Institutes of Health funding is impressive and her extensive research work has resulted in the use of peripheral nerve allografts clinically to reconstruct extensive and otherwise irreparable peripheral nerve injuries.