Breast Reduction

Large, pendulous breasts are very problematic to the average woman. Woman often complain of back, neck and shoulder pain. The large breasts also cause the patients to suffer with skin irritations under the breast known as intertrigo. Bra straps leave indentations in the shoulders.

Many women enter a vicious cycle when faced with large breasts. As the breast get larger, they are more tired toward the end of the day, they are also increasingly self-conscious about their appearance; these two issues make it more difficult to get into or stay in shape. Many women are forced to wear multiple bras when exercising. As the patient then gains weight, the breasts get bigger, thereby making the symptoms worse and the solutions more difficult to attain. Breast reduction surgery reverses the cycle making exercise fun, not a chore!

Breast reduction surgery removes fat and glandular tissue to reduce the size of the breast. Older techniques focused on skin excision to shape the breast. This philosophy resulted in sagging, flat breasts as the skin stretched out. Furthermore, the large excision of skin resulted in unsatisfactory permanent scars. Newer techniques rely on rearrangement of the breast tissue (fat and glandular tissue) to create the breast shape, thereby resulting in a more durable, longer lasting perky breast. These new techniques also remove fat in the armpits making these techniques look complete. The newer techniques require more skill than previous techniques, so choosing the right surgeon is essential. Dr. Freund has eleven years of experience with the Lejour, Hall-Findlay and Goes techniques for breast reduction.

The Lejour and Hall-Findlay techniques have become the treatments of choice for larger breast reduction procedures. My choice between the two is alays the Lejour Technique. This technique yields a more natural, more perky look with better scarring than the Hall-Findlay. The cleavage is also fantastic! Although easier to perform, I reserve the Hall-Findlay technique for any patient with previous scarring above the areola. More exciting to my practice is the use of the Goes Technique for breast reduction. This technique is limited to smaller reductions and for younger patients with less sagging. In spite of its limitations, the Goes technique reduces the patient’s breast with a small scar around the nipple. Imagine that just 10 years ago we were performing thee techniques with scars that extended across every part of the breast and now we can perform these procedures without a perceivable scar. The Goes technique also has less risk of loss of nipple sensation and also less risk of inability to breast feed. For more on breast reductions, and to decide if you are a candidate, please refer to Dr. Freund’s book, “Cosmetic Breast surgery – a complete guide from A to DD.”