Journal time! This is a study from my mentor Dr. Pat Maxwell. In it, they look at the inframammary fold position (“IMF”) in 111 patients as seen in the Vectra system (which I have and love). This is the in February 2016 issue of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal. “Asymmetry of Inframmmary Folds in Patients Undergoing Augmentation Mammaplasty.” In English: are the bottoms of your breasts even? (where you underwire of a bra hits you)? Shockingly, the answer for most of us is no.
Study:
- 111 patients
- Vectra 3D imaging system
Results:
- Asymmetry was found in 95% of the patients
- The right IMF was lower in 60% of the patients
- The average difference was 4mm (range 1mm-2.1cm)
- The was strong correlation between the degree of asymmetry of the IMF and nipple areola asymmetry.
Why do we care?
I do a lot of breast augmentations. Most women are *gulp* asymmetric naturally.
The issue is most people have not noticed their asymmetries.
Nipple position, fold position, and volume can all be different. When you do an augmentation, you can actually magnify the asymmetries if you do not take actions to mute them. I point out asymmetries to my patients, so they can see what we are starting with. For the IMF, if the breast sits lower, then the nipple is likely lower on that side, and the fullness in the cleavage area will be lower. When putting in an implant, the lower you put in the implant, the more you will lift the nipple. So many vectors are at work. Pretty breasts are symmetric breasts. We try to get volume, cleavage, shape, nipple position, and fold position as close as we can.