Symmastia is an uncommon but difficult complication where the two implant pockets join across the midline, so the implants sit too close together and the skin over the breastbone lifts away, creating a "uniboob" appearance.
Causes
- Over-dissection of the pockets towards the midline.
- Implants too wide for the chest, forced together to create cleavage.
- Thin tissue and aggressive medial dissection.
Treatment
Symmastia is challenging to repair and usually requires surgery to reconstruct the midline — recreating the pockets, internal sutures or support material, and sometimes smaller implants or a change of plane. Prevention through conservative medial dissection and appropriate implant width is far better than cure. It is specialist revision work.