What are the symptoms of breast duct dilatation?

Breast duct dilatation is a female disease. Many times, because women do not pay attention to physiological laws, normal eating habits and proper exercise, they will cause a series of problems in the body. Today, let’s learn about the symptoms of this enemy of women, breast duct dilatation.

Mammary duct ectasia is a benign breast disease that is not uncommon in clinical practice. However, due to unclear understanding, it is often misdiagnosed as mastitis, breast tuberculosis, or breast cancer. Mammary duct ectasia is also known as plasma cell mastitis. In fact, plasma cell mastitis is only a late manifestation in the development of mammary duct ectasia.

This disease is more common in women aged 30 to 40 who are in the childbearing and non-lactating period, and sometimes occurs in elderly women after menopause. So far, the cause is still unclear, but it may be related to autoimmunity. Patients often have inverted or deformed nipples, and the openings of the mammary ducts are blocked by secretions, causing the ducts to dilate. The deposits stimulate the duct walls, causing damage to the duct walls and inflammation of the mammary gland tissue. In the early stages of this disease, it may manifest as nipple discharge, which is yellow, brown or bloody. Sometimes, thick pus-like substances may be secreted after squeezing the breast. In the later stages, lumps of varying sizes may appear near the nipple and areola. The skin on the surface of the lumps is red, swollen and tender. Sometimes, the abscess is difficult to heal after incision, and fistulas are formed. Due to repeated attacks of the disease, the breast skin may thicken and the nipple may be inverted. The disease has a long course, up to more than ten years in some cases, and antibiotic treatment is usually ineffective.

Mammary duct ectasia is very easy to be misdiagnosed before surgery. The diagnosis of this disease mainly relies on breast B-ultrasound, breast mammography, breast ductography, breast fine needle aspiration and other examinations. Once mammary duct ectasia is diagnosed, surgical treatment should be taken in a timely manner according to the different characteristics of the disease. For localized lesions, lobectomy can be performed; for extensive lesions, subcutaneous mastectomy can be performed to preserve the patient's nipple and normal part of the gland. For those lumps accompanied by abscess formation, timely incision and drainage should be performed while anti-infection treatment is being given, and the diseased tissue should be removed after the infection improves.

After sharing this article with you, I mainly hope that if any female friends unfortunately suffer from this disease, they should go to a regular hospital for examination as soon as possible and receive a series of treatments. Although this disease is not uncommon, it is also relatively difficult to treat, so I hope female friends will pay special attention to it.