The recovery of sensory function following skin flaps in humans.

Two cross-sectional studies were made of the recovery of tactile and pain sensitivity in subjects having skin flaps in the region of the chest and neck as a result of tumor excision. In experiment 1, stimuli ranging from 2.46 to 17.10 gm of force were delivered by von Frey hairs to the flaps and comparable normal sites in 35 subjects at times ranging from 1 month to 10 years after surgery. No subjects perceived stimuli of less than 11.80 gm, thermal, or moving touch applied to flaps, whereas 21 percent perceived 11.80 gm or greater force (judged as painful applied to normal skin). The results of experiment 2 showed that these findings were not due to visual information available to subjects. Possible explanations for the fact that these results are radically different from those reported in the literature are discussed.