Trends in breast reduction technique

There are two main approaches to breast reduction surgery today: the traditional long scar ("Wise-pattern") technique and the more recent short ("vertical") scar technique, which is becoming more popular. During the last two decades there has been a gradual shift between the two techniques, including at our institute.

To evaluate the evidence behind this obvious trend.

We retrospectively collected data fromarchived hospital charts of all patients who underwent breast reduction surgery during the period 1995-2007. Epidemicological, clinical and postoperative data were analyzed and compared between patients in whom the short scar vs. the long scar techniques was used.

During the study period 91 patients underwent breast reduction surgery in our department: 34 with the Wise-pattern breast reduction technique and 57 with the short-scar procedure. There was no significant difference in operative and postoperative data, including length of hospital stay. In some of the categories there was even a slight advantage (but not statistically significant) to the former. The only significant difference was the size of reduction, with a tendencyto prefer the long scar technique for larger reductions; however, with experience gained the limit for short scar reductions was gradually extended to a maximum of 1470 g.

We noticed a sharp increase in the safe and uneventful practice of the short scar technique in breast reduction of < or = 1400 g--especially in young women without extreme ptosis. This observation, together with other advantages, namely, reduced scar length, prolonged shape preservation and better breast projection, support the use of this technique.