Treatment of acute mastitis

If a mother gets mastitis during breastfeeding, it is a very painful thing for her. We all know that breastfeeding is the time when the baby needs milk the most. If we get mastitis at this time, the baby will face the problem of having no milk to drink, and it is also very harmful to us mothers.

Acute mastitis is a common disease of the female breast. At the onset, there are often symptoms of systemic poisoning such as high fever and chills. The affected breast increases in size, becomes hard locally, the skin becomes red, and there is tenderness and throbbing pain. If the area becomes soft within a short period of time, it means an abscess has formed and requires incision and drainage. The following is the TCM diagnosis and treatment of the three types of acute mastitis.

Three-stage treatment of acute mastitis

1. Stagnation period.

For localized breast swelling and pain, milk obstruction, and obvious milk stasis, finger-grabbing breast massage can be performed first to unclog the milk ducts and allow the stagnant milk to be discharged. The method is to apply a little lubricating oil or talcum powder on the affected breast, and use the five fingers of your hand to gently massage from the four sides of the breast toward the nipple, but do not squeeze hard or press with rotation. Instead, gradually push out the stagnant milk along the direction of the milk duct. While massaging, gently pinch the nipple several times and squeeze the areola to expand the milk ducts in the nipple. Massage until milk discharge is smooth. Then apply golden ointment topically to clear away heat and detoxify, promote blood circulation and reduce swelling, and then combine with microwave irradiation. Treatment is once a day and milk is expressed regularly. And take decoctions internally to soothe the liver and clear heat, promote lactation and reduce swelling.

Mastitis decoction: Bupleurum 10g, honeysuckle 24g, dandelion 30g, red peony root 15g, moutan bark 15g, fenugreek 10g, smilax glabra 10g, selfheal 15g, gualou 15g, angelica 15g, tangerine peel 6g, orange leaf 10g, liquorice 10g. If the heat is severe, add 30g of gypsum; if the swelling and pain are severe, add 10g of frankincense, 10g of myrrh, 10g of Corydalis yanhusuo, and 10g of Chuanlian; if the lochia has not stopped, add 15g of Cyperus rotundus, 15g of Leonurus japonicus, and 10g of Chuanxiong; if the milk stops, add 30g of charred malt and 30g of charred hawthorn. Take one dose per day, decoct in 200ml water, twice a day.

2. Purulence stage.

Breast swelling and pain for more than one week, accompanied by persistent high fever, fatigue, poor appetite, yellow and greasy tongue coating, stringy and rapid pulse, large area of ​​breast redness and swelling, the lump is hard around the edges but soft in the middle and has a sense of fluctuation when pressed, or pus is found during puncture, and timely incision and drainage under local anesthesia or fire needle drainage is required. Select the most obvious part of the fluctuation to make small radial incisions, perform incision and drainage, and fill the wound with our hospital's homemade elephant skin ointment gauze to remove dead tissue and promote tissue regeneration. Change the dressing daily and perform breast massage to remove milk stasis. Apply golden ointment to the surrounding tissue lumps. Change the dressing daily and take Chinese medicine internally mainly to clear away heat, detoxify, and drain pus.

Tounongsan plus other ingredients: bupleurum 10g, angelica 15g, raw astragalus 30g, stir-fried pangolin 10g, ligusticum chuanxiong 10g, gleditsia thorn 20g, honeysuckle 20g, forsythia 20g, raw gardenia 10g, trichosanthes 20g, toosendan 15g, moutan bark 10g, poria 15g. If milk leaks from the sore after the pus is drained, apply pressure with a gauze pad on top. Pressing the broken end of the milk duct for 34 days will stop the leakage.

3. Late stage of ulcer.

After ulceration or incision and drainage of pus, the fever and coldness usually subside, the swelling and pain decrease, and the wound heals gradually. If the pus does not drain smoothly after ulceration, the lump does not disappear, the pain does not decrease, and the fever does not subside, then pus bags have appeared; if the pus invades other glandular lobes, it becomes a herpetic mastitis; sometimes milk can be seen overflowing from the sore or the pus is clear and thin, forming milk leakage, and the sore is slow to heal. The treatment is to nourish Qi and blood, and harmonize the Ying and expel toxins.

Tuoli Xiaodu Powder with modifications: 30g of Astragalus, 12g of Codonopsis, 12g of Atractylodes, 15g of Poria, 10g of Angelica, 10g of Chuanxiong, 10g of Pangolin, 30g of Gleditsia sinensis, 15g of Taraxacum, 10g of Angelica dahurica, and 6g of Licorice.

Ancient Chinese Medicine reminds: The dosage of the above medicines is for reference only. When using, they must be re-prescribed under the guidance of a Chinese medicine practitioner. Do not blindly treat yourself in order to achieve satisfactory results.

In addition: Prevention of mastitis is more important than treatment. During pregnancy and lactation, keep both nipples clean. If the nipples are retracted, they should be gently squeezed out and cleaned. You can clean your nipples with 3% boric acid water before and after breastfeeding. Develop the habit of regular breastfeeding. The milk should be completely sucked out each time. If it cannot be completely sucked out, it can be expressed by massage or expressed with a breast pump. If the nipples are damaged or cracked, you should breastfeed temporarily, use a breast pump to extract the milk, and then breastfeed after the wounds heal.

Through the above introduction, we have a general understanding and knowledge of acute mastitis during lactation, and we also have an understanding of the treatment of acute mastitis during lactation. So if we mothers really suffer from this disease, we must go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible. Delaying the disease will not only be of no benefit to ourselves, but also very harmful to the baby.