What are the symptoms of mastitis?

Mastitis is a common disease. When it occurs, some symptoms will appear, especially for breastfeeding mothers, who will also be troubled by mastitis, which will cause nipple discharge, breast deformation, breast lumps, etc. When the suppurative stage occurs, the lumps inside will become hard, and the lumps will gradually become larger, and may even cause abscesses, penetrate the skin and cause ulcers.

At the beginning of acute mastitis, the patient will experience breast fullness and pain, which is worse during breastfeeding, poor milk secretion, the presence or absence of breast lumps, slightly red or no red skin, or general discomfort, poor appetite, chest tightness and irritability, etc.

Generally, the fluid flowing out of the nipple will appear bloody or serous, so it seems that we should go to the hospital for further diagnosis.

At this time, we will find that the skin where there is a lump will bulge, and the local skin will appear in the shape of orange peel, or even a series of changes such as water, discoloration, eczema, etc.

A lump the size of a broad bean will appear in the breast. If you touch it with your hand, you will clearly feel that the lump is hard and movable, but there will not be any obvious pain. A small number of patients may experience dull pain, tingling, etc.

The local breast becomes hard and the lump gradually increases in size. This may be accompanied by high fever, chills, general weakness, dry stools, rapid pulse, ipsilateral lymph node enlargement, and increased white blood cell count. An abscess may often form in 4-5 days. Breast throbbing pain may occur, the local skin may become red, swollen and translucent, the center of the lump may become soft, and there may be fluctuation when pressed. If it is a deep breast abscess, the entire breast may become swollen, painful, and have a high fever, but the local skin redness, swelling and fluctuation are not obvious. Sometimes there may be several abscess cavities in one breast at the same time or one after another.

Superficial abscesses can often penetrate the skin, forming ulcers or causing milk to overflow from the wound and cause milk leakage. Deeper abscesses can penetrate into the fat between the breast and pectoralis major muscle, forming a retrobreast abscess. In severe cases, sepsis may occur.

It is crucial to actively treat mastitis according to its early symptoms. The symptoms of mastitis are as mentioned above. They are not scary. What is important is how you take care of it. Eventually it develops into breast cancer!