Strömbeck technique

Abstract

Choosing a technique of breast reduction today may be difficult for a young plastic surgeon. Will he choose a lateral technique or a technique with an inverted T? A bipedicle technique, horizontal or vertical? With one pedicle or two pedicles? Oblique, superior, or inferior? With skin undermining or no skin undermining? Which technique is the safest and gives the best results? Some techniques are praised and others are denigrated by experienced surgeons with a reliable opinion and being an authority in breast reduction. The choice of the young surgeon is in addition more difficult in the apparent difficulties of techniques that are described. But is it the technique which is bad or surgeon? The author believes anyhow the situation is simple. Around 1960, this situation changed radically with the publication of Strömbeck [1] and his new concepts in breast reduction surgery. His concepts simplified so much the situation and were so successful that they have been copied, modified, adapted, faked up, disguised, republished, and his original technique is confused or mistaken and found with difficulty, in the middle of plagiarisms or modifications. The author believes that in breast reduction surgery, we can distinguish: Before Strömbeck and After Strömbeck. We should credit those who make science and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish them. The author wishes to give to Strömbeck the place that he deserves in this difficult surgery that he has greatly simplified and made safer for the surgeon and for the patient. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.