Nashville, Tennessee SPAIR Breast Lift Surgery by Female Plastic Surgeon Dr. Amy Ortega

Patients considering breast lift or breast reduction in Nashville are learning about newer techniques, such as the SPAIR. The “SPAIR” is a unique approach to breast surgery initially developed in 1996 by Dr. Dennis Hammond at the Center for Breast and Body Contouring in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The procedure was initially developed to address inadequacies in the then-current methods of breast reduction, which at that time often resulted in long scars prone to poor wound healing and a flat, unnatural breast shape.

The word SPAIR stands for Short-scar Peri-Areolar Inferior Pedicle Reduction. “Short-scar” refers to the smaller, shorter scar formed after the SPAIR procedure as compared to the scar produced by traditional breast reduction techniques. Other breast reduction techniques can result in a much longer scar under the breast, which sometimes has problems healing. With the SPAIR approach the scar will be located around (“Peri”) the colored area of the nipple called the areola (“Areolar”) with one additional scar running down from the areola to the underside of the breast. Another difference between the SPAIR method of breast reduction and some traditional methods is that the SPAIR procedure reduces breast volume by removing tissue from the upper portion of the breast. The lower part of the breast (“Inferior Pedicle”) is then elevated/lifted to produce a rounder, more natural look. A third key advantage of the SPAIR is the internal breast shaping which is accomplished by “sculpting” the remaining breast tissue and by suturing (“stitching”) the tissue on the inside in a very specific way. These sutures cannot be seen on the outside of the breast and therefore do not contribute to a scar, but yet greatly add to the surgeon’s ability to create a beautiful, natural breast shape that tends to last longer than some breast surgery methods.

Over the years, the SPAIR has evolved into an “approach” to breast surgery rather than a single procedure, and refers to a very thoughtful, three-dimensional artistic approach to managing the breast skin and breast tissue for the optimal result – a breast with minimal scarring and a pretty, more natural shape. In addition to breast reduction, the SPAIR concepts are now applied to breast lift, breast lift with augmentation, and breast reconstruction after mastectomy (removal of the breast due to breast cancer).

Dr. Amy M. Ortega is one of very few surgeons in the country who has been fellowship-trained to perform the SPAIR method of breast surgery. In addition to learning more traditional breast surgery methods during her plastic surgery training from 1997-2002, Dr. Ortega then completed an additional six months of full-time work to develop expertise in breast surgery techniques. During that time, she completed several research studies to advance the field of plastic surgery of the breast and has since been published in internationally recognized plastic surgery journals.