Breast lift

Mastopexy
Intervention
Breast lift: the pre-operative aspects of mild breast ptosis (left), and the post-operative aspects of the correction, the lifted bust (right).
ICD-9-CM	85.6
MedlinePlus	007402
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Mastopexy (Greek μαστός mastos “breast” + -pēxiā “affix”) is the plastic surgery mammoplasty procedure for raising sagging breasts upon the chest of the woman; by changing and modifying the size, contour, and elevation of the breasts. In a breast-lift surgery to re-establish an aesthetically proportionate bust for the woman, the critical corrective consideration is the tissue viability of the nipple-areola complex (NAC), to ensure the functional sensitivity of the breasts for lactation and breast-feeding.

The breast-lift correction of a sagging bust is a surgical operation that cuts and removes excess tissues (glandular, adipose, skin), overstretched suspensory ligaments, excess skin from the skin-envelope, and transposes the nipple-areola complex higher upon the breast hemisphere. In surgical practice, mastopexy can be performed as a discrete breast-lift procedure, and as a subordinate surgery within a combined mastopexy–breast augmentation procedure.

Moreover, mastopexy surgery techniques also are applied to reduction mammoplasty, which is the correction of oversized breasts. Psychologically, a mastopexy procedure to correct breast ptosis is not indicated by medical cause or physical reason, but by the self-image of the woman; that is, the combination of physical, aesthetic, and mental health requirements of her Self.

The usual mastopexy patient is the woman who desires the restoration of her bust (elevation, size, and contour), because of the post-partum volume losses of fat and milk-gland tissues, and the occurrence of breast ptosis. The clinical indications presented by the woman—the degrees of laxness of the suspensory Cooper’s ligaments; and of the breast skin-envelope (mild, moderate, severe, and pseudo ptosis)—determine the applicable restorative surgical approach for lifting the breasts. Grade I (mild) breast ptosis can be corrected solely with breast augmentation, surgical and non-surgical. Severe breast ptosis can be corrected with breast-lift techniques, such as the Anchor pattern, the Inverted-T incision, and the Lollipop pattern, which are performed with circumvertical and horizontal surgical incisions; which produce a periareolar scar, at the periphery (edge) of the nipple-areola complex (NAC), and a vertical scar, descending from the lower margin of the NAC to the horizontal scar in the infra-mammary fold (IMF), where the breast meets the chest; such surgical scars are the aesthetic disadvantages of mastopexy.