Dr. Babak Dadvand Corrects Symmastia With Surgery

Posted on Friday, June 15th, 2012 by Dr. Babak Dadvand

Symmastia, also referred to as synmastia, is when there is no separation between the breasts.  This leads to the nipples positioned more on the outer part of the breasts.  Typically symmastia is due to a combination of making the medial pockets for the implants too close together and using implants that are too large for the patient’s frame.  Affectionately called the uniboob, it is a problem that will need revision surgery to correct.

If the implants were initially placed over the muscle, an easy fix is to go under the muscle and avoid over release of the muscle along the sternum, or breast bone. If the implants are under the muscle, I recommend not going over muscle, but instead to close off the pocket medially. This can be done using internal suturing, but more recently I have been doing this in addition to using a product called Strattice to reinforce the repair. This ensures a much more durable result than to just rely on the patient’s thinned out tissues to be able to hold stitches in place.

Below is an example of a patient who came to me with symmastia.  She had 3 prior breast surgeries and had gone bigger with the implants. You can see how she has lost her cleavage and her nipples are more on the outside of her breasts.  I performed a symmastia repair by closing of the medial portion of the implant pockets to the sternum and reinforcing it. Notice the proper position of her nipples now that the implants are centered behind and not medial to her nipples. Also, I used a smaller implant, going from 450cc to 400cc. This is because I was making the implant pockets smaller by closing off the medial aspects.

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