New approach to robotic mastectomy can preserve full breast and nipple sensation

Breast cancer mastectomies used to be devastating, disfiguring procedures that stripped women not only of their cancerous breasts, but the muscles around them, as well as all the affected tissue and nerve endings.

The resulting loss of feeling and sensation seemed like a double assault in a situation that often leaves a woman questioning her femininity and womanhood. Now, two scientists have devised a robotic mastectomy that preserves both the breast nipple and the sensitivity in it.

In a commentary in Newswise, one of the scientists, Dr. Deborah Farr, said

the procedure involves a maneuver that goes through the armpit and takes a detour around the tissue that causes the most desensitization.

“It’s a first-of-its-kind, robotic, nipple-sparing mastectomy … that provides remarkably natural-looking outcomes while preserving full breast sensation,” Farr said.