I use Vectra 3D imaging. I love it for what it can do. It lets you see your breasts (which oddly most of us have not really looked at in detail before). It lets me figure out asymmetries of nipple position and volume. It lets me show patients what a potential breast augmentation with an implant would look like.
But how accurate is it?
I will tell you the study result, and then I will tell you my thoughts.
This was in the December 2023 issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal. “Three Dimensional Surface Analysis for Preoperative Prediction of Breast Volume: A Validation Study.” The study was quite clever. They did scans of women’s breasts prior to breast cancer surgery where you remove all of the breast tissue and weight it. They asked the question: how accurate is the preoperative 3E surface imaging at predicting volume? If it is accurate, it would help us a ton with planning surgery. What size implant do you need? If we need to do a breast reduction on the other side, how much do we need to take out?
Study:
- 2020-2021 included all patients who had preoperative Vectra XT 3D imaging. They looked at the Analysis Module and Body Sculptor modules to estimate volume using standard breast borders.
- 170 patients (266 breasts) were done.
- No significant difference between mastectomy weight of 621g (plus/minus 360 g) and Vectra estimate of 610 g (plus minus 361 g)
- BMI, BSA, and ptosis grade significantly affected the Vectra predictions.
They conclude that Vectra Analysis module was more accurate at predicting mastectomy weight. They thought differences between the estimate at the actual weight were likely attributable to differences between the surgical mastectomy borders and the breast borders used in the imaging.
My thoughts?
I love my Vectra. I do think it is a useful tool. I find it pretty accurate in small breasted women who are not droopy. I find the volumetric analysis (where it takes one side and superimposes it over the other to test volume difference) to be good for most patients.
But it is NOT accurate with women with droopy breasts or large breasts.
Also volume and weight are not equivalent. Sometimes a breast is large but weighs very little. Vectra does not have a toggle to add breast density or skin laxity into its calculations.
This study was interesting in that the Vectra prediction and mastectomy sample were close for many patients. I hope the technology and imaging keeps improving. I do a lot of breast reductions and if I could rely on a scan to tell me that the right breast is 113 grams larger than the left breast, that would be awesome.
But we aren’t there yet.