Breast Reduction Procedures:
- With a reduction, you always receive a lift, and many patients feel as if a weight has literally been taken off their shoulders after surgery. They find that they can breathe more easily, exercise harder, and even rest more comfortably after reduction surgery. Finally, you can just put on a regular bra in a real store and not have to shop at a specialty store for your support garments. It is one of those little surgical miracles. Breast reduction surgery has one of the highest patient satisfaction ratings of all surgical procedures according to the 2001 American Society of Plastic Surgeons Patient Review Study. This has been my experience as well. This operation really works. Your breasts will be smaller, higher, perkier than ever before. And although time and gravity may continue to work, most patients are really, really happy with their results.
- Many patients have suffered from large breasts for many years, and while a certain percentage of breast tissue is fatty tissue, oftentimes no matter how much weight you loose, your breasts still remain large. In fact, I have had many women feel like they have gained weight in order to remain in proportion to their breasts. Combined with the fact that larger breasts make it nearly impossible to exercise or loose weight, it becomes a vicious cycle.
- Rashes, especially in the summer, can be a bother. Women with asthma can feel like they are choking or unable to breathe when they lie on their back.
- Bra straps – even gel padded ones – can dig into your shoulders causing deep, permanent indentions. Sometimes pressure from the straps can even cause numbness and tingling in the finger tips and arms because the straps are pressing on the brachial plexus, an important nerve.
- In addition, back pain – especially between the shoulder blades – is a very common complaint. Sometimes women even develop a little dowager’s hump or hunch back, from leaning forward all the time. Tension develops in the neck muscles and can trigger migraines. Postural exercises can help. Physical therapy, or muscle massage, can sometimes relieve these problems, but it may help only temporarily. I have had some women gain relief with chiropractic adjustments of the spine. Acupuncture can address pressure points. Yoga and Pilates help loosen up the muscles. Ibuprofen, Advil and Aleve can be taken, but they are not a good long term solution.
- While the many long-term benefits of breast reduction surgery have been amply documented in numerous medical journals, we still have to provide your insurance company with a reason they should pay for this procedure. This has become more time consuming than the actual surgery itself! How this helps hold down the high costs of medical care, I am not sure, but the debate is certainly contributing to lots of paperwork and gray hairs on our part. For your specific insurance company’s medical criteria, you can go to their web site and review their medical policy bulletins. For example, Aetna is at www.aetna.com. See United at uhc.com, Pacificare at pacificare.com, and Cigna at cigna.com/health. Halls.md will help you calculate your body mass index.
- The standard surgery uses an upside-down T shaped or anchor scar. While the majority of people were pleased with the results, there were problems with the horizontal portion of the scar at the ends and where the vertical and horizontal scars meet. These areas were prone to enlarging from the tension on the sutures, leading to wider, thicker scars here. The vertical scar procedure or lollipop mastopexy was first described in 1964, but it was not until Madeline LeJour, from Belgium, combined this with liposuctioning of the breasts, in the 1980’s, that it received much attention. She and others have developed this into a fine art. I have been doing this for more than ten years now. The three key benefits over traditional methods of breast reduction are: LESS SCARRING, MORE SHAPELY BREASTS, GREATER LIFT.
- I also do breast reduction with liposuctioning alone, as well as other types of reductions, but the vertical mastopexy has been wonderful. There was a good article at talksurgery.com, but you can do your own google search on vertical mastopexy, LeJour Mastopexy, etc.
- View our Breast Reduction Before and After Photos.