Rate My Professor Susan Mackinnon

Susan E. Mackinnon, MD, serves as the Minot Packer Fryer Professor of Plastic Surgery and Chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She earned her medical degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, in 1975, completed a surgery residency at Queen’s University in 1978 and a plastic surgery residency at the University of Toronto in 1980, followed by fellowships in neurosurgery at the University of Toronto in 1981 and hand surgery at the Raymond Curtis Hand Center, Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, in 1982. Board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, Dr. Mackinnon joined Washington University in 1991. She holds additional professorships in Surgery, Occupational Therapy, and Otolaryngology, and her clinical practice focuses on peripheral nerve surgery, including hand and upper extremity disorders, carpal tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, brachial plexus injuries, nerve transplants, and facial palsy.

Dr. Mackinnon’s research specializes in peripheral nerve injury and regeneration, nerve allografts, nerve transfers, and the role of senescent Schwann cells in nerve repair. She directs an NIH-funded laboratory investigating nerve allotransplantation for traumatic injuries and the effects of Glial Cell-Derived Neurotrophic Factor on regeneration, and she established the Center for Nerve Injury and Paralysis and the Peripheral Nerve Surgical Research Laboratory at Washington University. Having performed the world’s first donor nerve transplant, her innovations have transformed clinical treatments for nerve injuries. Key publications include her textbook Nerve Surgery (Thieme, 2015) and recent articles such as “An Updated Evaluation of the Management of Nerve Gaps: Autografts, Allografts, and Nerve Transfers” (2025), “Compression of the Ulnar Nerve by the Arcade of Struthers: Look and You Shall Find” (2025), and “Brachial Gunshot Wounds: Injury Patterns and Considerations for Managing the Abnormal Neurological Examination” (2025). Her contributions have earned awards including the Trustee Award from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2022), American Association for Hand Surgery Honorary Award, Jacobson Innovation Award (2013), Castle Connolly Clinical Excellence Award (2012), election to the Institute of Medicine (2007), and 2020 Distinguished Faculty Award.