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FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MARCH 15, 2018 • WELLNESS • THE QUEENS COURIER 37
Photo courtesy of Northwell Health
Northwell Health doctors perform the fi rst robotic
mastectomy at a New Hyde Park hospital
BY QUEENS COURIER STAFF
editorial@qns.com / @QNS
A one-of-a-kind surgery that helped a
woman take preventative action against
breast cancer while preserving her body
was performed recently at a hospital in
New Hyde Park.
Aft er learning that her sister had breast
cancer in 2015, Elodie Trouche, 45, a
native of France who now resides in
Nyack, NY, decided to be tested for the
potentially life-threatening BRCA gene.
Aft er receiving a positive result, she
decided to have a preventive double mastectomy
– but on her terms.
With 230,000 new cases diagnosed each
year, breast cancer is the most common
non-skin form of cancer in the United
States. Of this number, more than 100,000
women in the U.S. undergo mastectomies.
Witnessing the scars and emotional distress
her sister lived through following
surgery solidifi ed Trouche’s resolve. “I
refused to be mutilated,” she said. Th e
ordeal encouraged her to fi nd an alternative
method for saving her life.
“So many women will be aff ected by
breast cancer or the threat of it because of
the BRCA gene,” Trouche said. “Th rough
education and empowerment, we can learn
about new technology that will help us get
through this together.”
Trouche researched for two years to
fi nd surgeons who would perform a nipple
sparing mastectomy (NSM), a procedure
that preserves a woman’s entire
breast while saving the existing, natural
nipple and areola. Th e results of her
search brought her to Northwell Health’s
Long Island Jewish Medical Center in
New Hyde Park.
“I knew I had some time because I was
having surgery as a preventive measure …
I wasn’t sick,” Trouche said. “I knew about
robotic surgery and made up my mind that
this was the best way for me. Once I found
my team here at LIJ, I never looked back.
I have found this entire experience to be
very empowering. By educating myself and
saying ‘no’ to what I didn’t want, I had the
exact type of surgery that I was hoping for.”
Trouche underwent this country’s fi rst
robotic NSM mastectomy and breast
reconstruction surgery on March 4.
Two days later, she joined her surgeons,
Alan Kadison, MD, Division of Surgical
Oncology; and Neil Tanna, MD, Division
of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, at a
press conference to discuss the results of
the procedure.
“We’re seeing very real advantages to
using Da Vinci technology for this type
of surgery – a decreased length of stay in
the hospital, less pain, easier recuperation
and most important of all, we’re striving
for increased patient satisfaction,”
Kadison said.
Traditionally, conventional NSM mastectomies
involved some type of incision
on the breast itself, meaning long
incisions located directly on the breast.
According to Dr. Tanna, the use of robotics
spares the breasts.
“By doing the surgery robotically, incisions
and scars are placed away from the
breast, sitting instead on the chest wall near
the armpit,” said Tanna. “Th is surgery was
performed as an investigational study following
strict Institutional Review Board
(IRB) protocols. We hope to be continuing
this study with other women who are
interested in considering this alternative to
traditional surgery.”
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