title: Creation of an intermammary sulcus in congenital synmastia.
abstract: Synmastia is a condition where both breasts appear conjoint without an intervening intermammary sulcus. This is usually the result of technical complications during breast implant surgery caused by over-dissection of the medial pocket over the sternum in the subglandular plane, or by an over-division of the pectoralis muscle origin along the sternum in a submuscular plane. As a congenital problem, this is very rare with only a single previous report of an attempt to correct this anomaly. We report a rare case of synmastia in a 19-year-old Indian woman. She had no previous surgery or family history of the condition. Vertical-scar reduction mammoplasty was performed for the hypertrophic breasts. Using the same access, the synmastia was corrected. This approach avoided incisions on the sternum, which is one of the keloid-prone sites on the body. Eight months postoperation, the intermammary sulcus was maintained.
authors.affiliation: Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, National University Hospital, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119074. surv21@nus.edu.sg
authors.forename: M T C
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001940:Breast / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000151:congenital / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*