Nerve-graft technique could be game changer for mastectomy patients

Operating theater generic image Photo credit Getty Images

By Nancy Harty

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Breast cancer patients may be closer to feeling normal after surgery, thanks to a new nerve graft procedure that surgeons are using at Advocate Lutheran General in Park Ridge.

Even with warnings before surgery, Dr Heidi Memmel, surgical director of Advocate’s Breast Center, said breast cancer patients were often surprised how they lost feeling after a mastectomy.

“You couldn’t feel pain in that area. You couldn’t feel a hug in that area. It felt like all dead skin. And of course, there was no sensation at all during intimacy,” she said.

They’ve performed a few grafts connecting nerve endings with cadaver nerves, she said.

Over six months, the nerve endings “find their way to each other and provide sensation to the skin again,” she said.

Dr Memmel thinks the innovation will persuade more women – especially those with the BRCA gene mutation – to undergo mastectomies.