Procedures
Breast Surgery
Breast surgery covers aesthetic and reconstructive work, and the two are not separate disciplines. The same principles of shape, symmetry and tissue handling apply to both.
Procedures in this category
- Breast Augmentation Surgery to increase breast volume and alter shape, using implants, the patient's own fat, or a combination of the two. The choice between them, and of implant plane and incision, follows from tissue quality rather than from preference alone.
- Breast Lift (Mastopexy) Mastopexy lifts and reshapes the breast by removing loose skin and repositioning the tissue and the nipple. It does not add volume. The degree of ptosis determines which incision pattern is used.
- Breast Reconstruction Reconstruction rebuilds the shape of the breast after mastectomy or lumpectomy, using an implant, the patient's own tissue, or both. It is usually staged, and the timing depends on what other cancer treatment is planned.
- Breast Reduction Reduction mammaplasty removes excess breast fat, glandular tissue and skin, repositions the nipple and lifts the remaining tissue. It is performed as much for the physical symptoms of very large breasts as for their appearance.
- Breast Revision Surgery Revision surgery corrects or improves the result of a previous breast augmentation — most often by exchanging the implants, but also to treat capsular contracture, malposition, rupture or scarring. It is a more complex operation than the original augmentation.
- Gynecomastia Surgery Gynecomastia is enlargement of the male breast from glandular tissue, and is distinct from pseudogynecomastia, which is fat alone. The distinction determines the operation: fat responds to liposuction, glandular tissue has to be excised.
- Nipple and Areola Reconstruction Surgery to correct the shape, size or projection of the nipple-areola complex, to correct inverted nipples, or to create a new nipple after mastectomy. It is usually the final stage of breast reconstruction.