Patient and Clinician Reported Outcomes of the Inframammary Incision “Short Scar Technique” in Primary Breast Augmentation

Abstract

Background Breast augmentation is a common aesthetic surgery procedure and surgeons are constantly trying to develop techniques that help improve patients’ outcome. One of the most important aspects is achieving a favorable scar. The ‘traditional’ breast augmentation scar is in the inframammary fold (IMF), whereas trans-axillary and trans-umbilical approaches have been described to an attempt to move the ‘location’ of the scar and make it less noticeable. Nonetheless, relatively little attention has been paid to improving the IMF scar, which remains the most commonly used scar for silicone implants. Objectives The authors have previously described a technique that uses insertion sleeve and custom-made retractors to allow implant insertion through a shorter IMF scar. However, at the time, the authors did not evaluate the quality of the scar and patient satisfaction. In this manuscript, the authors describe patient and clinician reported outcomes for this short scar technique. Methods All consecutive female patients, undergoing primary aesthetic breast augmentation with symmetric implants were included in this review. Results Three different scar assessment scales demonstrated good results at 1-year postop, as well as good correlation between patient reported and clinician observed scores. BREAST-Q sub scale for overall satisfaction also demonstrated good overall patient satisfaction. Conclusions Besides providing an added aesthetic value to the result of breast augmentation, a shorter scar may also appeal to patients are concerned about the size and quality of postoperative scars and like to search for ‘before and after’ pictures prior to scheduling consultations.