What is the treatment for a milk cyst?

Breast cyst is a common breast disease during lactation. It usually causes a lot of discomfort to your body. In severe cases, it can cause redness and swelling of the breasts, and sometimes it can cause fever and other symptoms in female friends. Once discovered, it should be treated in time. Let us learn together how to treat cysts when female friends develop them during lactation.

Galactocele, also known as milk retention cyst or milk stasis, is a benign disease in pregnant and lactating women. During the lactation period, a lobule or duct of the breast is blocked for some reason, resulting in poor milk discharge. The milk is retained in the duct, causing it to expand and form a cyst, which manifests as a lump in the breast. It is often mistaken for a benign breast tumor (breast fibroadenoma) and may occasionally be misdiagnosed as a malignant breast tumor.

The onset of the disease often occurs during lactation or pregnancy, especially after weaning. There may be a history of acute or chronic inflammation, trauma or surgery, and the onset site is often where breast inflammation, trauma or surgery has occurred.

1. Pain

Most patients experience mild distension and pain, and if accompanied by secondary infection, local skin redness and tenderness may occur. The ipsilateral axillary lymph nodes are often enlarged and tender.

2. Lump

The breast mass is round, smooth and movable, cystic, with clear boundaries and no tenderness, and is mostly 2 to 5 cm in diameter. It will shrink on its own after you stop breastfeeding or after massage. Large lumps feel cystic and elastic to the touch. When the contents of the cyst become thicker, the elasticity disappears, the hardness increases and becomes more solid, which can easily be misdiagnosed as breast cancer.

1. Non-surgical treatment

(1) Aspiration: When performing needle aspiration cytology examination of a tumor, if milky fluid is aspirated, the milk in the cyst should be completely aspirated at one time. When the milk is sucked out, the cyst will shrink and the remaining cyst cavity will be bandaged with pressure. In a few cases, the cyst can be cured after one sucking.

(2) If the cyst recurs and multiple punctures are ineffective, surgery may be considered.

2. Surgery

Simple cystectomy: If the cyst is repeatedly infected or continues to grow larger, simple cystectomy can be performed under local anesthesia. This disease is a benign lesion and simple cyst removal is sufficient without the need for breast removal. If accompanied by acute inflammation, anti-inflammatory treatment should be given first and then surgery. If you are breastfeeding, you can wait until your milk is healed before surgery.

If female friends feel breast pain during breastfeeding, they can use a towel for hot compress to promote blood circulation in the breast. At the same time, they should use a breast pump in time to suck out the large amount of milk remaining in the breast to reduce the discomfort caused by breast swelling. They should feed their babies on time.