Breast palpation

Breast palpation is the use of palpation to examine the breasts. The key point of palpation is to understand whether there are lumps in the breasts and the characteristics of the lumps. Touch the four quadrants of the breast: upper outside, lower outside, upper front, and lower inside, then touch the nipple, squeeze the nipple to see if there is any fluid overflowing from the nipple hole. Finally, touch the armpits, neck and upper neck area. Below are some common questions about breast palpation.

When checking, close your five fingers and place the palm of your fingers and the upper part of your palm on the breast to touch it. Use the pads of your fingers to apply light pressure, and gradually perform rotational or back and forth sliding palpation. The order of touching starts from the front-upper position, then the inner-lower, outer-lower, outer-upper position, nipple-nipple area, and finally touches the gland tail. During the examination, pay attention to the firmness of the breast tissue, whether there is any swelling, tenderness or lumps, and whether there are any lumps or secretions in the nipples. Under normal circumstances, the breasts have a vague sense of concavity and convexity and flexibility. If you feel a lump or mass, pay attention to the following characteristics:

(1) Location: usually indicated by position or clock face, and the distance from the nipple to 3 cm should also be recorded;

(2) Size: The length, width and thickness must be described so that the size of the block can be compared with the size in the future;

(3) Appearance: Is the shape of the lump standard, such as ring-shaped or disc-shaped?

(4) Boundaries: clarify whether;

(5) Quantity: single or multiple;

(6) Strength: soft, tough, hard or cystic;

(7) Pain: whether it exists;

(8) Mobility: good, poor or fixed, relationship with skin, muscles and sternum; psoriasis surface skin: whether pits are formed.

4. Check the armpit to see if there are any swollen lymph nodes.