Body contouring.
The prospect of surgical body contouring is a rather recent innovation for the surgeon. For underdeveloped or atrophic breasts, augmentation mammaplasty is reasonably successful. For ptosis and/or hypertrophy of the breast, reduction and elevation on the chest wall by making the breasts more conical and more projecting is a common procedure for the plastic surgeon. Breast reconstruction is now done after either simple or radical mastectomy, and subcutaneous mastectomy procedures, preserving the nipple and areola, are also commonly done for disease of the breast which is not yet malignant. The abdomen which has been stretched and distorted with scars and striae can be reconstructed by resecting excess skin and fat and tightening up the underlying musculature and fascia. Excess fullness in the lateral aspect of the hips or relaxation, wrinkling, and sagging of the skin of the thighs can be corrected by a thigh lift and surgery for lipodystrophy, keeping most of the scars high in the inguinal area and in the inferior gluteal crease. The buttocks themselves can be corrected if sagging or hypertrophic and, in the exceptional case, even an augmentation to the buttocks similar to that of the breasts can be done.