Résumé
Accessory axillary breast tissue has received little attention in the surgical literature although it is not an uncommon kind of aberrant breast tissue. Twenty-six patients who have been treated with an exicision of accessory breast tissue from January 1988 to June 1995 at the Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University were analyzed retrospectively. The age of the patients ranged from 18 to 58 years, median age, 34 years. All were female including two postmenopausal females. We observed a palpable mass in the left axillae in 6 patients, in the right axillae in 8 patients and in the both axilla in 12 patients. Of the 41 masses of 26 patients, 19 masses were located on tne anterior axillary line, 20 masses on the midlle axillary line and 2 masses on the posterior axillary line. The size of the accessory breast tissue ranged from 0.5 to 8cm, with a median of 3.4cm. The presenting symptoms were mass in all cases, pain in 12 cases, growing mass in 4 cases and redness in one case. Histological diagnosis of total 41 masses revealed 28 normal breast tissue, 9 fibrocystic disease, 1 ductal ectasia, 1 fibroadenoma, 1 fibrocystic disease with ductal ectasia and 1 infiltrating ductal carcinoma. There were no typical clinical characteristics for differential diagnosis preoperatively. Of a total of 38 excisional operations, 4 complications developed (two hematoma, one wound infection and one skin tag). The postoperative hospital stay ranged from 1 to 17 days. The accessory breast tissue might be regarded as a more important disease than before, because various pathologic changes could occur in it including malignant change. Early diagnosis and correct excision are usually recommended.