Medial pedicle/vertical breast reduction made easy: the importance of complete inferior glandular resection.

Over the past several years, I noted an increased demand for shorter-scar breast reductions. I started to perform the vertical scar/medial pedicle breast reduction in January of 2001. Since that time, 120 procedures were performed, and these cases are the basis for this study. Over the time period of this study, there was a learning curve. I first started performing the procedure only on smaller reductions (<600 g each side) and now perform the short scar reduction for most patients having <1000 g removed from each side. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the technical points required to make the transition to short-scar breast reduction easy and reliable.