Management of idiopathic granulomatous mastitis: a surgical experience of ten cases

ABSTRACT

Granulomatous mastitis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the breast that is rarely described in literature. It mimics breast abscess on clinical presentation giving dilemma to the surgeon. The etiology can be infectious, autoimmune or idiopathic. The various modalities of treatment for idiopathic granulomatous mastitis includes drainage of abscess, antibiotics and corticosteroid therapy. This is a case series of ten cases of diagnosed with granulomatous mastitis treated in the period of 2 years from 2018 and 2019 in Department of General Surgery, MGM Hospital Navi Mumbai. The data of all the patients were collected from records. They were following at regular intervals in the outpatient department to assess recurrence. The mean age of the patients was 41 years (range 26–47 years). Six patients gave history of breast-feeding in the last 5 years, one was lactating at the time of presentation. One of the patients was treated empirically for Tuberculous mastitis for the opposite breast. Others had no history suggestive of tuberculosis or other connective tissue diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or sarcoidosis USG breast was performed in all cases. Hypoechoic abscess was seen in 5 cases. The time taken for complete resolution of the disease was ranging from 2 weeks to 2 months. All patients had an uneventful recovery and no recurrences reported till now. GM is a rare benign breast disease that is difficult to distinguish from other inflammatory breast diseases or cancer. The diagnosis of GM must be based on a multidisciplinary approach. Surgical management followed by antibiotics was found to be sufficient to treat the condition in our patients. Corticosteroids need not be administered in all cases of this benign breast disease.