Improved
6112 HealthChanged
3786 LivesSaved
3568 Lives0 lives impacted in the last 24 hrs Learn More
Dr. Casey shares what women should expect following a mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery and discusses if sensitivity will return to the breast after these procedures.
Dr. Casey:
I think a woman that comes in that’s facing breast cancer surgery always has the question, is there hope that they can go back to the way that they were? And our goal is that we get them as close to that point as possible and absolutely there’s hope.
Every single woman has that chance no matter whether they have had a mastectomy before, whether they are still facing this, we can get them to the point where they are comfortable in clothes, comfortable even to the point where we can get them as natural an appearance and form and function that they can ever want.
Unfortunately when the question comes up about sensitivity of the breast once it’s reconstructed, it will never really get back to the point that it was before the mastectomy was performed. All the nerves that go to the skin get cut and although it will re-grow and it’s a slow process, you may regain some sensation but nothing to the point that there used to be.
Even with the nipple preserving techniques it’s never going to be quite the same. In most women that doesn’t cause a lot of problems, but it will never get back to the point where it was.
About Dr. William Casey, M.D.:
Dr. William J. Casey, M.D., is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr. Casey graduated from Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest University Medical Center in North Carolina. He then completed his residency in plastic surgery at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Minnesota and in general surgery at Greenville Memorial Hospital in South Carolina.
Visit Dr. Casey at Mayo Clinic