Plastic Our Experience

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and present our experience of surgical correction of nipple inversion. PATIENTS & METHODS: During the study period of from March 2006 to December 2009, 13 female patients, with diagnosis of nipple inversion directly reported at OPD and admitted to Department of plastic & Burn Surgery; Liaquat University of Medical & health Sciences, Jamshoro. 02 patients were referred from other hospital of the province, admitted through our outpatient department. A well informed consent was taken before inclusion of the patients in the study. The counseling consists of the fact that patients with grade one or grade two are most likely to retain the ability to breastfeed in contrast to the grade three inversions. Data was stored and calculated by SPSS 17. RESULTS: The Mean±SD age of patients in this series was 26±4.3 years. In all patients single breast was affected. In 9 patients inversion of nipple found on right breast while in 4 patients presented with inversion of nipple of left breast. When examined 2 patients were having grade 1 inversion, 8 patients grade 2 and 3 patients were having grade 3 inversion of nipple. On mean follow up period of 18 months, 8 women (61.55%) were able to feed their newborn successfully. The nipple projection was maintained in 11 patients, while mild dropping of nipple seen in only 2 patients. However during the entire period of follow up, no recurrence found in any case. CONCLUSION: The inverted nipple still represents a challenge for plastic surgeons. We found that with simple technique, the scar is inconspicuous, functional element remain intact. In the case of a failure, it can be redone easily without major scarring.