Donut Mastopexy Technique

Let's look at donut mastopexy breast enhancement surgery. Before deciding to undergo any breast surgery, it is important to fully understand what it will consist of, the benefits, and the possible risks and after-effects.

Sagging Breasts

When a woman is at a young age, her breast skin is taut and elastic, and the ligaments holding the breast tissue to the chest wall are short and tight. With aging, exposure to gravity, weight changes, and pregnancy, the ligaments and skin are stretched and disrupted.

This leads eventually to sagging breasts, especially after breast involution following pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Surgery to correct this drooping is termed a mastopexy, or breast lift, and involves alteration of the breast skin and/or deeper breast tissue. One technique for this procedure is the donut mastopexy, or Benelli mastopexy.

Candidates for Donut Mastopexy

To be suitable for donut mastopexy, the patient must be in good health and must not have active diseases or pre-existing medical conditions. Due to the natural stretching and sagging of the breast skin after pregnancy, it is highly recommend that the patient waits until she no longer wants any additional children before having the surgery.

A patient is more likely to be satisfied with the results of the surgery if there is sufficient communication between the surgeon and the patient. It is critical to be able to voice your desires to your surgeon so that he will be able to better understand your needs and create the results you desire.

Surgeon's Goals

When designing the pattern of skin removal, one of the surgeon's goals is to leave the patient with a round areola and no stray areola skin out side the confines of that round areola. The areola can be distorted by tight suture closures after removal of the skin excess, so surgeons are very aware of the potential for this issue.

Another goal is to increase the visible skin between breast fold and nipple when one is standing upright. This is particularly important in breast lifts that also involve augmentation, because only putting in breast implants without also increasing visible skin on standing will not result in visually appealing results.

Breast lifts after frequently performed in conjunction with other breast procedures such as reconstruction after cancer removal, breast augmentation, and breast reduction with the removal of highly variable amounts of breast tissue. To improve symmetry, different approaches are often employed for each breast.

Donut Mastopexy Technique

The donut mastopexy technique is a way to eliminate the vertical post-surgical mark on the gland that occurs with the anchor and lollipop mastopexy techniques.

A circle, or "donut," of excess skin and areola is removed from around the areola, and the surrounding skin is "gathered" and sutured to the areola. The result is a camouflaged post-surgical mark that only runs around the areola with no vertical line running down the gland. This procedure is best for lesser degrees of ptosis (breast sag).

Contact Our Office

If you are interested in finding out which type of mastopexy is ideal for the results you desire, contact our office today. You'll be able to arrange a consultation with Doctors Andrew Ordon and Ritu Chopra, two skilled plastic surgeons.