Karla Elizabeth Jimenez Pavón, Héctor Ãlvarez Trejo, José Luis Villarreal Salgado, Enrique Romero Algará and Quitzia Libertad Torres Salazar*
Preserving the sensitivity of the nipple-areola complex, hereafter NAC, is one of the essential goals of breast surgery; however, providing standard values to evaluate and compare this indicator pre- and postoperatively remains a challenge for researchers and clinicians alike. To compare breast tenderness after mastopexy in patients operated with the Ribeiro vs. superomedial technique. Observational, prospective, longitudinal cohort study, conducted in 18-year-old patients with a diagnosis of gigantomastia or breast ptosis, who were scheduled for mastopexy at the Hospital Regional "Dr. Valentín Gómez Farías" of ISSSTE. The sample size was determined under a confidence level of 95%, a power of 80% and a maximum allowable difference of 15% to consider the equivalent techniques. After signing the informed consent form, each woman was evaluated to verify fulfillment of the selection criteria. To identify alterations in breast sensitivity, the thermotest and the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament were used at 4 times: T1 (preoperative), T2 (1st postoperative week), T3 (3rd postoperative month) and T4 (6th postoperative month). 83 patients successfully completed the study; 47 women in the Ribeiro mastopexy group and 37 women in the superomedial mastopexy group, with a median age of 37 and 45 years, respectively. A remarkable decrease in breast tenderness was observed with both techniques, without statistically significant differences between them.
