Content provided by Kandace McGuire, MD, Chief of Breast Surgery, VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and Paschalia Mountzsiaris, MD, Reconstructive Surgeon, VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center
Many women experience partial to total numbness in their chest after a mastectomy or reconstruction. Surgeons often need to damage or cut nerves inside the breast to successfully remove all of the tissue. Because of this, patients can generally experience significant numbness that is permanent. This can be devastating for women, who just want to feel whole after their mastectomy, whether it's preventive or following a cancer diagnosis.
A new, highly specialized surgical technique called resensation offers a large number of women the opportunity to regain sensation in their chest after a mastectomy and experience that feeling of wholeness they seek.
At academic medical institutions where this is available, this is a procedure that can only be done at the same time as a mastectomy because it requires the coordinated expertise of both a surgical oncologist and reconstructive surgeon at the time of the surgery. The breast surgeon will first carefully perform the mastectomy while identifying a nerve target and grafting option through which to complete the resensation. Once the mastectomy is done, the reconstructive surgeon will step in, using sutures smaller than a human hair, to sew the nerves back together, placing that carefully in the breast, and finalizing any adjustments as needed to finish the reconstruction.
Nerves regrow slowly, and patients may not experience returned sensation for months after surgery, with feeling increasing for up to two years. While this may seem like a long time, the end result spares many patients from permanent loss of feeling and allows them to return to a form of normalcy after their surgery.
Resensation also offers many women the opportunity to feel a hug with their loved ones or to avoid a Mrs. Doubtfire moment, where numbness can lead to unwanted burns or skin damage.
Cancer patients who undergo radiation or chemotherapy prior to a mastectomy may be less likely to regain full sensation or it may take longer to return, but they are still candidates in most cases.
If you're interested in this procedure, be sure to talk to your doctor to help determine if you're eligible.