ANZ J Surg. 2026 Aug 30. doi: 10.1111/ans.70935. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Outcomes in aesthetic breast surgery are dependent on accurate pre-operative breast measurements. The accuracy of large scale 3-dimentional scanners has been reported, the use of handheld scanners has not been described.
OBJECTIVES: The authors aimed to determine the trueness of anthropometric measurements of breasts obtained from a handheld 3D scan compared to direct measurements.
METHODS: Three raters measured the breasts of 19 women using three anthropometric measurements (direct) measurements: sternal notch to nipple (Sn-N), nipple to inframammary fold (N-IMF), base width (BW). The measurements were taken directly by two raters using a measuring tape, and digitally by one rater using the software on 3D scans acquired with the Artec Leo handheld 3D scanner. Statistical analysis was completed with Bland-Altman plots as well as scatter plots to identify bias between the two methods.
RESULTS: The study found that the 3D scanner showed varying levels of bias when compared to direct breast measurements. Sn-N measurement showed smaller differences, while the N-IMF and BW measurements exhibited larger discrepancies. The 3D scanning process was significantly faster, taking only 30 s per scan, compared to roughly 5 min for direct measurements, with an additional 10 min for image processing and digital measurements.
CONCLUSION: Three-dimensional scanning is most accurate for Sn-N and is more variable when measuring BW and N-IMF due to obscured landmarks on frontal imaging. The BW and N-IMF measurements also showed the most inter-rater variability. Consistent with previous research 3D scanning has limited trueness when measuring N-IMF as it is a dynamic measurement.
PMID:42669600 | DOI:10.1111/ans.70935
