What Do You Know About The Semielastic Scarless Serdev Suture Breast Lift?

In order to achieve a breast lift, the material used must be strong enough to oppose the force of gravity.  A 34 B breast weighs approximately 1 lb.  Sutures by themselves do not have the strength to hold that amount of weight.  Breast lifts are based on using the skin envelope or internal suspension to create the force necessary to oppose gravity.  These techniques require incisions around the areola or incisions around the areola and in the inframammary folds.  Vertical incisions are impossible to hide and are not recommended.  There is a new technique "The Ultimate Lift" that transfers the weight to the underlying muscle.  Many patients are looking for the ideal procedure without scars but this does not exist at this time.

Best of Luck,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

I agree with my colleagues and want to thank them for some really entertaining and honest answers!  Lol

Hi there-

I wish it weren't the case, but the unfortunate fact is that there are many people offering cosmetic surgery procedures (even some with legitimate plastic surgery training) who too easily resort to ridiculous gimmicks and cute names (the quick-lift, lunchtime lipo, naturalfill, etc) to attract patients and part them from their money.

Why do patients fall for these ridiculous gimmicks? Because you, like many other women out there, really want to believe that things that sound too good to be true can be achieved. The media attention to plastic surgery would make you believe that we are making "revolutionary" advancements on nearly a weekly basis, but common sense would tell you that a weekly revolution is not possible.

This media attention, and patients' desire to have something for nothing (a breast lift without scars or surgery), combined with the increasingly unethical and immoral behavior exhibited by some surgeons who are all too willing to say or do whatever it takes to attract more patients and take their money, creates a dangerous situation...

Please, please, please be careful. If I told you that I could sell you a "magic wrinkle-erasing mirror" for $2000 and that all you had to do is stare at yourself in the mirror for 30 minutes each day and after 6 months all of your wrinkles would be gone, would you send me your money? I hope not. I hope that you would laugh and dismiss me as the snake oil salesman that I would be if I did that... But the scary thing is that someone out there would send me money and believe it was true. Only after 6 months would they figure out that what I sold them didn't work and their money was long gone.

If I still haven't convinced you, you should know that here in my hometown of Orlando some years ago, an ER doctor calling himself a "cosmetic surgeon" actually had his medical license taken away after performing a procedure very similar to the one you are seeking on a patient- leaving her with chronic and debilitating pain, as well as ridiculous looking breasts.

 

 

Bulgarian "cosmetic surgeon" Dr. Serdev is performing what amounts to "thread lifting" of not only breasts, but faces, chins, buttocks, thighs, foreheads, etc. Virtually any part of the human body that sags can be "lifted" with these elastic suture puncture-only lifts. There is a reason these so-called "lifts" are performed and "taught" predominantly by "cosmetic surgeons," not real plastic surgeons. These are the Dermatologists, General Surgeons, OB/GYN doctors, and physicians of other specialties that have little or no training in plastic surgery, and often very little true surgical training of any kind!

Innovation? Hardly!

New? No way!

Does it really work? Depends on what you mean. It certainly does make money for the practitioners, and usually does not harm patients, except in their wallets!  

Results? Minimal to NONE! (especially if you do it on someone who didn't need it in the first place)

Cost? How much are YOU willing to pay for the Emperor's clothes?

There is a reason that properly-trained (6-7 years of surgical and plastic surgical training AFTER medical school) and American Board of Plastic Surgery-certified plastic surgeons do not perform this technique and instead utilize "traditional" techniques. They aren't "traditional" at all; they are ethical, appropriate, and represent state-of-the-art procedures that really work and provide results that last. And yes, scars are needed, and there is a percentage of patients that will have nipple numbness. Everybody wants "something" for "no risk," no scars, and of course, "low cost."

Barnum and Bailey had it right when they provided sideshows that exhibited bearded ladies, "real, live memaids," and other such spectacles to take money from a gullible public. There really is a sucker (actually lots of them) in every crowd! Don't fall for this brand of snake oil! See ABPS-certified plastic surgeons and get the real deal. Best wishes!

Thanks for your question -

In our Bay Area practice we frequently perform traditional and short scar / vertical scar mastopexy (breast lift).

The challenge with this procedure for many patients is the scar and plastic surgeons have been working for decades to find ways to minimize the scar while keeping the powerful and long lasting results of traditional lift techniques.

Unfortunately, no one has nailed a scar free technique.  Suture techniques have been tried in other areas (facelift, buttock lift, etc.)  Most of these techniques have been abandoned as reliable alternatives to traditional surgical techniques.

I would doubt that a suture technique would produce a long lasting change.  In addition, the concept of suture techniques in breast lifts makes even LESS sense than these same techniques in facelifts because with many breast lift candidates you really have an excess of skin that won't change.

I hope this helps!

My God, WHERE do I start??

Let's address the issue of NEW and EFFECTIVE. There are very few professional athletes as competitive and imaginative as most of my Plastic surgery colleagues. We got to our positions by being the brightest and most competitive in our medical school clases and most individualistic. BY nature we are constantly trying to come up with new solutions to problems and fiercely compete with each other to come up with new and better outcomes. So - it is truly rare for a totally new and effective solution to remain unused. if this "solution" was great most of us would be doing it within 6 months. 

You need to consider the history of Breast Sagging. Breast Lifting has changed over the years. To lift the sagging breast up on the best and relocate the nipple complex onto the center of the lifted breast mound the older techniques removed the skin below the nipple complex and by so doing propelled the breast higher on the chest. The problem with such "SKIN TAILORING" procedures was that the skin gradually gives and stretches leading to relapse and the scar involved was an inverted T or sea anchor shaped scar. Short Scar Breast Lift procedures emerged in which the sagging breast gland was partially cut and turned in under the rest of the breast, acting as an auto-breast implant. The excess skin is then tailored as needed resulting in a lollipop shaped scar. These procedures result in a MUCH longer lasting perky and full result. Not to be outdone a Brazilian surgeon Dr. Sampaio Goes came up with a breast lift procedure involving peeling the skin off the breast through a scar around the nipple complex, wrapping the breast with a man-made plastic mesh (not available in the US), much like tea is held in tea bags, and the bagged breast is then lifted and secured to a few higher ribs to prevent sagging. Attempts to reproduce this lift with meshes available in the US had mixed results and concerns were raised about the visibility of the breasts to cancer detection examination and tests resulting in its never being popular. Various attempts at using BARBED SUTURES and SLINGS then followed. The uniform problem was that such techniques do NOT remove the excess, sagging breast lower pole skin AND these sutures ALWAYS fail by either breaking, slipping or cutting through the tissues reluting in relapse. 

Since every woman over the age of 30 (over 100 million in the US) will exhibit some form of breast sagging, even if 10% of them (over 10 million) desired their breasts lifted, that would present each board certified Plastic surgeon with 180,000 or so women asking for the procedure. Such numbers are hard to ignore. As a result, the ethically weak, immoral, flim flammers in our society and the much more numerous fake Plastic surgeons (doctors "practicing" Plastic Surgery without completing Plastic Surgery training and being certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery, check wwwABMSorg) are making millions off women who choose to ignore their own common sense and believe the shameless irresponsible marketing lies put out by such BS artists.

If I could make cellulite vanish with a few applications of my expensive "cellulite go away" cream? WHY would I not share it with Memphis, where i practice, and the rest of the world?

If I could do a drive through scarless Facelift and get the results I currently get from my formal short scar Facelifts, do you really think I would not switch to it in a second?

If ALL it took to lift a sagging breast was a scarless magic platinum, gold, or whatever stitch expertly woven through the breast do you REALLY think I would still prefer a formal operation with longer recovery andpermanent scars?

For your own safety, STAY AWAY from such ads and such doctors. You will lose your hard earned money but you could also be permanently hurt by going to them.

Peter A Aldea, MD

There do not seem to be any US surgeons using elastic suspension sutures to lift the breast. Thread lifts have been tried on many parts of the body, notably the face, however the results have been very short lasting and largely given up. We will bet that the suture breast lift is also too good to be true.
Best of luck, peterejohnsomd.com

Breast sagging involves skin, breast tissue and breast attachments to the chest wall. Using treads that have failed in the face lift and other body parts will not work. Patients that have sagging do not like what their board certified surgeons recommend and look for scar-less alternatives. If there were a technique to avoid cutting on the breast,we would have been offering it to our patients. Board certified plastic surgeons always looking for the innovations to provide the latest safe and effective techniques to our patients.

Never, ever, be the first one on your block to try something new.   If a procedure is good today, it  will be good tomorrow and year after year.  Stick to a trusted plastic surgeon who has experience with time honored surgical procedures to give your a satisfactory result.  Too good to be true, probably is.....  

Great answer Dr Daniels. To answer each question: 1. Very temporary if that, 2. It can be done in USA but by who?, 3. Again less than a few months, 4. No, I'm sure it is very in expensive. Be careful out there!