Restoring Sensation Through Nerve Grafts

Restoring sensation to a reconstructed breast is the last piece of the puzzle. For years we have been able to preserve the nipple and areola and reconstruct a warm, soft, natural breast.

Over the last few years, I began repairing sensory nerves in the breast that were cut during the mastectomy to sensory nerves found in natural tissue flaps. This reinnervates the flap tissue with nerves that previously innervated the breast. As sensation in the reconstructed breast improves, so does the patient’s sense of physical well-being and the feeling that the reconstructed breast is their “own.”

Check out this video demonstrating suturing of a nerve graft.