Education
Dr. Buncke attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and earned his medical degree from the New York Medical College in 1951.Career
Buncke's work began in a laboratory which he set up in his garage, using instruments and surgical suture, sutures he developed. In 1964, he reported a rabbit ear replantation to the Plastic Surgery Research Council Meeting in Kansas City, Kansas. This was the first report of successfully using blood vessels 1 millimeter in size, an achievement previously thought to be technically impossible. In 1966, Buncke and colleagues reported the Organ transplant, transplantation of a monkey great toe to hand using microsurgery, a second landmark that ushered in an era where replantation of amputated digits and extremities would become widely performed. With Dr. Donald McLean, Buncke performed the first successful microvascular transplant using Greater omentum, omentum to fill a large scalp defect In 1969. 1970, Buncke founded the Buncke Clinic at the Davies Medical Center in San Francisco, California. Surgeons at this clinic went on to accomplish many 'firsts', including a human toe-to-hand transplant, scalp replantations, serratus-combined-latissimus microvascular transplants, four-digit replantion and, in 1997, the replantation of a severed tongue. It could be mentioned that Bunke's name and image were included on an USPS stamp.He was my surgeon in the late 70'sFootnotes
External links
* - website part written by this surgeon.