 The purpose of breast lifting (mastopexia)
To remove a redundancy of empty skin from the breasts and in the same move create a nicer looking shape of the breast, only using the volume of breast tissue which already exists. Why breast lifting?
The reason is to give back to the woman some of her self-esteem, that she may have lost only because of sagging breasts after pregnancy and breast-feeding. Some young women unhappily have drooping breasts without having had children. Their reason for a breast lifting is to approach as close as possible the ideal breast shape; conical, pointed breasts high on the thorax. The surgery
In the procedure skin is removed in suitable quantities and the glandular (milk producing) tissue is lifted to a higher level on the breast muscle and remodelled to a better shape. The lifting procedure always leaves scarring around the areola (the pigmented area around the nipple). The areola itself is often diminished. There will also be a scar running vertically down from the areola to the lower limit of the breast cone. The technical procedure used in this clinic does not leave any horizontal scar along the lower limit of the breast. This is good since the horizontal scar, which most other techniques leave, is much more apt to grow ugly. I want to leave a special warning here. Some individuals easily form bad scarring (hypertrophic scars or even keloids). It's a pity when they do. However nicely the plastic surgeon does the knitting an ugly scar can develop. In breast surgery, therefore, it is good to know that incisions along the lower border of the breasts can form very nasty, hypertrophic scars. The longer the incisions, the greater risk of bad scarring. Incisions around the areolae can also form bad scarring but not so often. Incisions vertically down from the areolae virtually never form bad scarring. These incisions very often form wide or very wide scars but always thin, pliable and pale. With a little suntan they more or less tend to "disappear". In resume: Firstly, especially in young women breast surgery with horizontal scarring underneath the breasts (excemption is so called short incisions) should not be performed. Secondly, breast surgery with only incisions around the areolae and vertically down from the areolae always result in nice scarring! The breast lifting procedure is with us often done in local anaesthetic combined with proper tranquillisers. Done so the operation takes anything from 90 to 150 minutes. In general anaesthetic it takes it takes 60 to 90 minutes. A breast lifting procedure can in chosen cases be done as a smaller intervention than described. Then leaving scars only around the areolae. The healing
The days after surgery the breasts feel tender and are swollen. Pain is individual but normally is rather light, rarely tough, and only for 1-3 days. Paracetamol or paracetamol with codein will relieve the pain. Some can't tolerate codein! Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) is never to be taken 2 weeks before and one week after surgery! Aspirin can cause bleedings. When operating in local anaesthetic blood collections post operatively are rarely seen. Healing is most of the time smooth and nice after breast lifting (masto pexi). The patient can take her first shower 2 days after surgery. The convalescence
The time of convalescence is 1-3 weeks, in the sense that after this time span the patient can resume her occupation. Of course domestic office work can be resumed after half a week. The stitched wounds are taped after finished surgery and it is recommendable to keep taping for 2-3 months post operatively. Taping results in optimally nice scars. We use stitches to be removed after 3 weeks. Stitches, which dissolve in the skin, may cause irritation and are more rarely used by us. Complications
With careful and accurate surgery complications should be rare indeed. But every patient must bear in mind that all kinds of surgery have natural risks; infection, post operative bleeding, necrosis (non-healing, sloughing). All these risks are much greater and more serious in diabetics and smokers and those over-weight! The ability to breast-feed is normally not affected. The result
It is rewarding to see a woman, happy and proud, after a successful breast lifting. Her sagging, pendulating bags of breasts have been transformed into a relatively well-filled and snobbish front. |
