One of my fellow surgeons at Duke told me he tells his patients ‘not to limit their result based on a scar’. For obvious reasons patients want to avoid the vertical scar on their breasts when undergoing a lift, and would rather have a smaller scar solely around their areola. I understand that. However, the avoidance of this scar can come at a very high price: shape.
A Benelli style mastopexy, a lift performed with an incision only around the areola, is a a good lift, but it has to be used wisely in the right patient for it lacks the power of a circum-vertical lift which involves a scar down the center of the breast. A Benelli lift is awesome when used in patients with a very small amount of droop and I use it frequently, but for patient with more significant droop, they need a more powerful lift in order to get the shape they want.
When someone really needs a full lift, a circus-vertical lift but they opt for only an incision around their areola they will experience two things: one, unsightly spreading of the areolar scar, and two: flattening of the breast. So instead of a perkier breast with a nice shape with a good scar they are faced with wide scars and a flat breast; a high price indeed.
By adding a vertical scar it allows me to shape the breast, is a more powerful and long lasting lift, and produces a much prettier breast. In addition, and very importantly, a circumvertical lift will allow your for removal of the heavy part of your breast that is droopy—this is really important to the shape as this breast tissue is heavy and causes re-droop and takes away from the augmented look—this tissue needs to be removed, and in my opinion is the strongest argument for having a circumvertical scar.
