[From a single vertical scar to vertical mammaplasty. From Louis Dartigues (1869-1940) to Claude Lassus (1933)]

The cutaneous sequelae left by mammaplasties have always constituted a major problem as well for the patients as for the surgeons. Since the turn of the century and the birth of modern mammary corrections, surgeons have tried to reduce these scars, while avoiding the impairment of the vascularisation of the mammary gland, the nipple-areola complex and the skin. L. Dartigues proposed, in 1924, the use of a single subareolar vertical scar for the correction of limited mammary ptosis. F. Lötsch introduced, in 1923, the rudiments of the future vertical mammaplasty by associating a peri-areolar scar to the single vertical subareolar scar. In 1971, C. Lassus, who had become interested and had been using Lötsch's technique since 1964, abandoned the technique for a while, but returned to these basic technique of Lötsch which he modified over the years and made it applicable in 1980 to ptosed and most hypertrophied breasts. This article is also concerned with the historic evolution of the scars left by mammary corrections and with the mastopexy procedures.