Mr Ruben Kannan

Specialist interests: Facial reanimation/restoration and supermicrosurgery

Mr Ruben Kannan is an award-winning consultant plastic surgeon with a doctorate in nanotechnology from University College London and additional diplomas in head and neck surgery as well as legal medicine. He gained entry onto the GMC Specialist Register in Plastic Surgery in 2012 and has completed fellowships in facial reanimation, reconstructive microsurgery, and aesthetics, with advanced training in super-microsurgery (Japan), migraine surgery (USA) and Bell’s palsy surgery (USA).

Having been a consultant in the NHS since 2013, he joined the facial palsy unit at QVH in 2016: the largest and most advanced facial palsy service in the UK. The team treats the most difficult and complex Bell’s palsy patients throughout the country. In 2018 alongside QVH maxillofacial surgeons, he jointly performed the world’s first free tissue transfer for chewing function at QVH. His innovations focus on restoring not only an optimal facial appearance but function as well. Mr Kannan’s defining policy is to restore maximal function with minimalistic surgery: a combination of aesthetic restoration and super-microsurgery (surgery in the sub-1mm realm). These include the Motor End-Plate Innervation (MEPI) concept, the early management of both flaccid and non-flaccid facial palsy, chimeric vascularised nerve flaps, Fibonacci-sequence flaps, ultrasound-guided Botox injections and intra-oral vascularised nerve grafts.

Mr Kannan is a recognised trainer for the prestigious national head and neck surgery TIG fellowship programme at QVH and hosts many international visitors and fellows at QVH. During COVID, he and his colleagues helped QVH set up telemedicine consultation portals for facial palsy patients nationwide. This allows the best care for facial palsy patients, in the comfort of their homes.

Mr Kannan is a full member of the Sir Charles Bell Society and is on the medical advisory board of Facial Palsy UK, and a council member for the Royal Society of Medicine (Plastic Surgery section). He is an expert for the International Microsurgery Club, in addition to being a founder-member of the UK Cranial Nerve Network, the first network of specialists in the world, dedicated to the management of cranial nerves. Mr Kannan is a good listener and seeks to customise treatment on an individual basis, based on discussions with his patients. This allows him and his colleagues to not only rebuild the face but restore some or all its function such as movement, sensation, and the ability to chew; continuing to build on the legacies of both McIndoe and McLaughlin at East Grinstead.