Sensory reinnervation and sensibility in skin transplants

Reinnervation and sensibility were investigated in patients previously subjected to split thickness skin transplantation after excision of skin and subcutaneous fat for treatment of malignant melanoma. All patients except one showed poor sensibility and no neurofilament positive sensory nerve fibres were detected. Most patients had heat and pain sensibility but with a higher threshold than on the control side. It is suggested that this heat pain sensibility is mediated from nerve fibres in the underlying tissue. In one patient, however, sensibility was encountered and in this patient neurofilament positive sensory nerve fibres were observed in the dermis and epidermis.