Breast Lift

Conveniently located to serve Washington DC, Arlington, Bethesda

What is a Mastopexy?

A mastopexy is a breast lift. The surgery lifts and rejuvenates your breasts to make them more perky and youthful.  This is a common operation in women after childbirth or after significant weight loss, however there are many younger patients that have never had children or weight changes that have ptosis (drooping).  

Who is a good candidate for mastopexy?

Anyone who has drooping of the breast and is healthy is a candidate for surgery .   If you have adequate tissue and just extra skin then a lift alone will treat saggy breasts.  If your breasts are deflated and there is not enough tissue, then an implant or fat grafting may be recommended in addition to the lift to increase breast volume, this is called an augmentation mastopexy.  

How is a mastopexy performed?

There are different patterns of mastopexy incisions depending on the degree of ptosis (drooping).  

1. A crescent lift utilizes a small incision at the upper border of the areola to provide a small amount of lift.  This is generally used in techniques where an implant is being placed.  
2. A periareolar technique uses an incision all the way around the areolar border at the junction of pigmented and non-pigmented skin.  This can also be used to reduce your areola size.  This technique is also mostly utilized in patients who are concurrently having an augmentation
3.  A vertical technique or lollipop technique uses an incision around the areola combined with a vertical incision that connects this to the lower portion of the breast. This is used for patients where the periareolar technique won’t lift the breasts enough and more skin removal is needed.  
4. The most common technique is an anchor scar/Weiss pattern.  This technique can dramatically lift the breast by removing skin in both the horizontal and vertical planes.  The scar is around the areolar, combined with a vertical incision and an incision that runs along the lowest part of the breast Inframammary fold).  The scars are on the lower portion of the breasts so you can wear a low cut dress or bikini top.  This will maximally lift your breasts.

Recovery

Mastopexy recovery is fairly easy and most patients are back to work in about a week and back to the gym in 3 weeks.  Showering is restarted at 72 hours after surgery and baths/swimming are allowed at 4 weeks post procedure.  Scar therapy starts soon after surgery and a surgical bra or a sports bra is worn for a month (no underwire). Although you won’t need to wear a bra once you’re healed, we do recommend it to maximize longevity of your results.

Risks

1. Bleeding – all surgical procedures come with a small risk of bleeding, in some cases, this may need to be drained
2. Infection – infection is uncommon in mastopexy, but if it does happen, antibiotics may be needed
3. Nipple sensation changes – uncommon, but you could have an increase or decrease in nipple sensation
4. Nipple loss – extremely rare and would require reconstruction
5. Poor scarring – mastopexy incisions do create scars. In most patients these are thin and well tolerated, however in some genetically predisposed patients, these can be wider or even keloids.  Usually scar therapy works well, however in a very small percentage of cases, revisional surgery may be needed
6. Wound healing issues – breast lifts use tension to lift the breast, in a small percentage of cases, this may cause some slow healing
7. Asymmetry – virtually everyone has some minor differences between their breasts prior to surgery, during surgery we attempt to correct any preexisting asymmetries, however very mild asymmetries may remain due to surgical technical limitations.
8. Need for revision – in some cases a touch up may be needed for optimal aesthetics
9. Changes in breastfeeding – although mastopexy surgery doesn’t interrupt the breast ducts, there is very minor risk of changes in the ability to breastfeed

Before & After