The reason that this kind of pain happens, and it's not just from mastectomies. It's in some ways like the phantom limb pain some people have when a leg has been taken off. These things are all the result of nerve damage. In this case it's because nerves have been cut. They had to be when the mastectomy was done. Sometimes they try to regenerate. Nerve tissue doesn't do a real good job of that but sometimes it tries and it's like there is this little firing. That is why it feels like it is an electrical kind of thing. It is the nerve impulses trying to get through. And that's the simple explanation of why these post-surgical syndromes in various parts of the body happen. Sometimes the pain lasts for months, years. Sometimes it goes away as suddenly as it came.

Additional Medical Information:

• Nerve pain