ASPS Recommended Insurance Coverage Criteria for Third-Party Payers | Reduction Mammaplasty

The justification for reduction mammaplasty should be based on the probability of relieving the clinical signs and symptoms of symptomatic breast hypertrophy. Because it is difficult to determine the size at which breast enlargement becomes pathologic in any individual, it is the position of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that the definition of symptomatic breast hypertrophy should focus on the degree of symptomatology, not the degree of breast hypertrophy present (cup size or amount of tissue removed). These policy recommendations are based on the evidence based companion guideline for Reduction Mammaplasty. A comprehensive search of PubMed, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature was performed to identify current literature on the treatment of breast hypertrophy by using various combinations of the following search terms: mammaplasty, reduction mammaplasty, breast reduction, breast hypertrophy, macromastia, as well as a wide range of indexing terms (MeSH terms), free text words and word variants.