Breast Lift - Mastopexy

As I have mentioned in other areas of this site, simple breast augmentation surgery offers a minimal lift to women with minimal breast ptosis (or droop). Sometimes a woman presents with breasts that have more ptosis than can be corrected with simple placement of a breast implant. There are of course borderline cases in which simple augmentation can be performed reserving a lift for later if required. Later breast lift in this case can be more difficult (and expensive). The less-than-scrupulous surgeon may just neglect to tell a women this (to "get the case"). I have certainly had women present to me who obviously needed a breast lift and had seen other surgeons who felt that they might be OK without it. Some patients may refuse the lift even when it is needed. They can be worried about the scarring of which they may have heard.

The good news here is that there are different techniques in mastopexy surgery that can be performed; some offer decreased incisions and therefore a decreased potential for scarring. You may indeed be worried about nothing.

Modified Mastopexy - a Reduced Scar Breast Lift

Modified mastopexy denotes a breast lift with less than the full number of incisions. These are named relative to the Full Mastopexy or Wise Pattern Mastopexy. Women with lesser degrees of ptosis are often candidates for modified mastopexy. The patient whose image appears below displays a common breast irregularity for which modified mastopexy (along with augmentation) is well-suited....Tuberous Breast Deformity. Curiously enough prior to my first meeting with the young lady, she had seen another surgeon who felt that she didn't need this breast lift. I can securely state that if she had augmentation without a lift, she would have been less-than-pleased with the outcome. This is one of those cases in which I would not have offered her surgery if the breast lift (in this case modified) were not part of the plan.

The technique of modified breast lift employed in her case (along with augmentation) involved incisions solely around the areolae. This procedure is also known as a Benelli breast lift. The patient wanted a slightly reduced areolar size which often can be accomplished with this form of breast lift and a mid "C" cup breast size.

The surgery took two and one half hours. She is quite pleased with her result here seen at 2 months. The implants at this stage have started to descend and her incisions around the areola are barely noticeable unless one looks very closely.
Modified Mastopexy / Augmentation Example #2

Full Mastopexy - for those with "really droopy" breasts

A Full Mastopexy Example

Women with more severe degrees of breast ptosis are not adequately served by modified mastopexy. They need Full or Wise Pattern Mastopexy. This technique requires incisions underneath the breast (in the breast fold) as well as vertically from the fold up to (and around) the areola. This surgery takes longer (three to five hours).