The surgical management of high-grade gynecomastia

Abstract

It is now well accepted that low grades of gynecomastia are best treated with liposuction alone. However, the surgical management of the high-grade gynecomastia (Simon's grade III) has remained problematic because both liposuction and conventional subcutaneous mastectomy (without skin excision) have frequently resulted in significant residual skin redundancy, requiring a second operation for skin resection. Our preferred approach to high-grade gynecomastia has been the single-stage subcutaneous mastectomy and circumareolar concentric skin reduction with deepithelialization. However, in the rare case of tubular breast deformity in the male and also in patients with gynecomastia who underwent massive weight loss, simple mastectomy and free nipple graft is performed. Therefore, these 2 groups of patients will be excluded from the current series. Twenty-four consecutive males with high-grade gynecomastia were reviewed. All patients underwent subcutaneous mastectomy with concentric skin resection. There were no major complications such as infection, hematoma, seroma, or nipple-areola complex necrosis. The main disadvantage of the technique was the mild residual skin redundancy, which was noted in all 24 patients. This redundancy, however, was never severe enough to require a secondary procedure, and all patients were satisfied with the final result.