Robert Whitfield MD explains the vertical ("lollipop") breast lift technique used during explant or revision surgery to narrow and lift the breast by advancing tissue below the nipple complex and closing to elevate the nipple. He emphasizes that the nipple complex is preserved (not removed) and that sometimes tangential skin excision around the areola is used to resize the areola.
So in those instances where we want to narrow and lift the breast, we're going to use a vertical technique, often referred to when you look at the scar pattern as a lollipop. So that allows us to take tissue from below the nipple complex and advance and lift the tissue as we close it. That's how you get an increased or elevated nipple position. You do not take the nipple off. Many times people have had lifts. I'm just revising that incision by carefully tangentially excising skin around the areola to make it fit a smaller breast. So tangential means like think of the outside of an onion. You're just peeling in a way you're not removing the nipple complex.
