Prof. Dr. med. Leila Harhaus-Wähner

Director of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Charité; Professor of Hand, Replantation and Microsurgery; Director of the Department of Hand, Plastic and Microsurgery and the Burns Centre, Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb)

2000–2005 Studied medicine at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 2006 licence to practise medicine (Approbation) and award of doctorate (Dr med., magna cum laude)
2006–2009 Specialty training in Mönchengladbach and Göttingen
2009–2013 Specialty training at BG Klinik Ludwigshafen
2012–2013 Fellowship in microsurgery at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
2013 Specialist accreditation in Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery
2014 Habilitation at Heidelberg University, 2017 appointed Adjunct Professor
2016 Additional qualification in hand surgery, 2019 European Diploma in Hand Surgery (FESSH), with an award for the best examination performance
2013–2022 Consultant, subsequently Executive Consultant and Lead Consultant in the Department of Hand, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Burns Centre at BG Klinik Ludwigshafen
2023 Head of the Department of Hand Surgery, Peripheral Nerve Surgery and Rehabilitation at BG Klinik Ludwigshafen
2024 Professor of Hand, Replantation and Microsurgery at Charité and Director of the corresponding department at Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb)
2025 Deputy Medical Director of Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb)
Since May 2026 Director of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, in addition to her leadership role at Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (ukb)

Functional impairment following injuries or cancer	Conditions following tissue loss or scarring that require reconstruction
Congenital anomalies of the hand and upper limb	Full spectrum of hand surgery
Peripheral nerve injuries and brachial plexus lesions	Painful neuropathies and nerve compression syndromes, for example in diabetic polyneuropathy
Spasticity affecting the hand and upper limb	Burn injuries and their sequelae
Full spectrum of plastic and reconstructive surgery	Complex soft-tissue and bone defects requiring reconstruction
Breast surgery and breast reconstruction	Hand and upper limb surgery
Peripheral nerve and brachial plexus surgery	Early and late reconstruction for facial paralysis (facial nerve palsy)
Microsurgical reconstruction, including free flap surgery	Burn surgery, reconstruction and rehabilitation following burns
Amputation surgery and sensory and prosthetic rehabilitation	Clinical and experimental research into nerve injuries, rehabilitation following burns and fracture healing

Languages: English, German

Chair of the Research Committee and Board Member of FESSH (since 2022)

Advisory Board Member of the German Society for Hand Surgery (DGH, since 2022)

More than 200 publications and book chapters