A new reconstructive breast procedure using sensory nerves gives sensation back to women who have had a mastectomy. A mastectomy, used for the treatment of breast cancer, involves removing cancerous tissue, which severs the nerve that gives feeling to the breast.

Surgeons at the Breast Restoration Center in Houston have developed a new reconstructive breast surgery technique that reattaches the severed nerve to a nerve in the abdominal tissue, which is often used to reconstruct a breast.

“When they regain sensation, patients consider the reconstructed breast to be more natural and accept reconstruction more easily,” said Dr. Aldona Spiegel, plastic surgeon and assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

So far, Spiegel and his colleagues have performed the new microsurgical procedure on almost a dozen mastectomy patients. These women began to regain sensation in their breasts approximately three to six months after the nerve connection surgery.

“The reason there is such a lag time is that the nerve has to grow throughout the flap into the skin layers, and the growth rate is about an inch per month,” Spiegel said.

The nerve connection surgery is most often performed with one of two reconstructive breast surgery techniques, which use a woman's abdominal tissue and overlaying skin, without damaging the underlying muscle. Deep inferior epigastric perforator known as the DIEP flap technique transfers fat and skin from the abdomen and supplies blood to the newly constructed breast from tiny abdominal vessels rather than abdominal muscles.

In a related, but less-invasive reconstructive breast procedure known as the superficial epigastric artery (SIEA) flap, the blood is supplied by fat in the abdomen. Both surgeries lessen recovery time and create soft, natural looking and feeling breasts, with little scarring in the abdomen.

“We believe that the new concept in breast reconstruction is restorative surgery, where form including shape, contour, firmness and symmetry, as well as sensation, is achieved,” said Dr. Saleh Shenaq, professor and chief of plastic surgery.