Sensibility of the breast after reduction mammaplasty.

Abstract

Changes in breast sensibility after reduction mammaplasty remain a controversial subject and most previous studies report only qualitative results. There is more accurate measuring of the sensibility of the skin with the Pressure-Specified Sensory Device (PSSD), which measures the pressure perception of the skin in grams per square millimeter. The evaluation of breast sensibility before and after reduction mammaplasty using the upper medial pedicle technique was undertaken in 25 patients. The PSSD was used to measure one dynamic point threshold in nine points of the breast during the preoperative period and 6 months after surgery. After surgery all patients had decreased sensation in all points studied, and this was significant. There are few reports of breast sensibility after mammaplasty using the PSSD, and the discrepancy in results reported using other methods of evaluation could be related to precision in evaluation.