Open AccessLong‐Term Sensibility Following Nonautologous, Immediate Breast Reconstruction
Author(s) -
Lagergren Jakob,
EdsanderNord Åsa,
Wickman Marie,
Hansson Per
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the breast journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1524-4741
pISSN - 1075-122X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1524-4741.2007.00441.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sensibility , breast reconstruction , breast cancer , mastectomy , stimulus modality , surgery , perception , cancer , art , literature , neuroscience , biology
Immediate breast reconstruction after mastectomy, using submuscular expander prostheses, is well established in the treatment of breast cancer. The aim of this study was to survey the postoperative cutaneous somatosensory status and to analyze the patients’ subjective opinion about the sensibility in the reconstructed breast. Fourteen patients were included and examined 3–6 years after reconstruction. The untreated contralateral breast served as control. None of the patients had received any locoregional radiotherapy. The perception thresholds to touch, cold, warmth, and heat pain were assessed and a questionnaire about the patients’ subjective experience of sensibility was completed. In the quantitative somatosensory testing, statistically significant impairment concerning all the examined modalities was demonstrated. The least affected was the heat pain modality. In the questionnaire, the patients reported weaker nonmodality specific sensibility from the reconstructed breast compared with the control breast. More than half of the patients reported that the reconstructed breast felt like a real breast. In conclusion, the study revealed long‐term, overall sensibility impairment following nonautologous, immediate breast reconstruction.