Can Pectoral Implants Fix A Wide Sternal Gap?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have provided a picture of an example of the pectoral gap I am talking about. Would it be possible to make the pecs appear closer together? For instance, perhaps putting an implant on the inside part of each pec to make the gap smaller? Would this be possible? Thanks.

A: Thank you for sending your picture. I believe you are referring to placing an implant under the pec major muscle to add volume…which is all that can be done practically but with these caveats:

1) The sternal border of the pectorals major muscle will get bigger/have more volume but will not necessarily move the medial muscle border further into the sternal valley.

2) Such a pectoral implant can not just be a limited implant that only covers the medial area of the muscle as it will be unstable and will slide away from it. It must be an implant that covers the entire subpectoral pocket to be stable. It can have its greatest volume along the medial muscle border but it must have a footprint that covers the whole subpectoral space.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana