Disproportionately large breasts can occur during puberty and later during pregnancy. In both these circumstances, the large droopy breasts cause much discomfort because of the heaviness and the embarrassing appearance. It can also lead to back pain and difficulty in getting a proper bra. All these are common reasons for affected women to seek a breast reduction.
Breast reduction surgery has evolved over the last few decades to become a safe surgery with fabulous results. Conventional techniques of breast reduction are open methods where the excess tissue is excised and the breast parenchyma is lifted and stitched in normal position. This entails having visible scars on the breast. For an unmarried woman having scars may be unacceptable.
Key hole breast reduction is ideal for young women with large breasts. The fat component in the large breast is removed by the key hole technique using tiny access points. This will reduce the size of the breast and the associated heaviness. If the skin tone on the breasts is good, there will not be any additional drooping from the procedure.
Anatomy in India
A breast is composed of a skin envelope, containing a “parenchyma” composed of varying proportions of fatty tissue and breast / fibrous tissue. As you will read below, some breast reduction techniques focus mainly on altering the skin envelope, and use this to shape the underlying content. More recent techniques have shifted this focus to concentrate on shaping the breast content (parenchyma) and allowing the skin envelope to re-drape. This “philosophy” of moving away from skin tightening and towards effecting change through manipulation of deeper tissues is also found in modern facelift techniques.
The procedure in India
The technique used will depend on the volume of the breast to be reduced and the amount of skin sagging to be corrected. Liposuction may be employed as an adjunct in some cases, when there are easily accessible significant fat stores. The vertical short scar technique is the preferred method in our centre. Very large breast reductions may require inferior pedicle reduction which will leave an anchor shaped scar.We prefer to perform breast reduction as a hospital based surgery.
