Breast reduction is one of the most common procedures performed by plastic surgeons. Because it is common and in most jurisdictions requires at least one day of hospital stay, it consumes considerable health care resources. Although multiple techniques have been reported, the two top competing techniques used in North America are the inferior pedicle technique and the vertical scar technique. There is on-going controversy as to the superiority of one technique over the other in terms of patient satisfaction and health care resource utilization. In the last few years, third party payers have been concerned with the unnecessary consumption of scarce health care resources due to the variation of practice mostly influenced by surgeon preferences rather than valid evidence.