How to treat mastitis fastest

Mastitis refers to the inflammation of breast tissue with or without microbial infection. Mastitis during lactation often occurs subacutely, dominated by infectious inflammatory mediators, and is mostly manifested by symptoms such as redness, swelling, heat, and pain. Mastitis during the non-lactation period is a chronic disease with lumps and pain, and the condition is prone to recurrence. Mastitis can occur in women of all ages, mainly during lactation, and is rarely seen in men.

In recent years, with the popularization of maternal and child health care knowledge, the incidence of postpartum mastitis in women has decreased to a certain extent, but it is still high. According to a survey data from the United States in 2017, the prevalence of mastitis during breastfeeding is 9.5%~33%, which means that 1~3 people will get mastitis for every 10 breastfeeding periods.

If mastitis is not adequately treated, it will always cause cysts in the breast, which usually need to be drained surgically. To prevent such complications, if symptoms or clinical signs of mastitis occur, you should seek medical attention immediately and have a specialist diagnose the condition. The diagnosis steps are as follows:

The specialist will collect the patient's medical history based on the patient's condition and conduct a full breast examination to make a basic diagnosis.

To rule out other diseases, some patients need to undergo some auxiliary examinations (e.g., breast ultrasound, pathological tissue biopsy, etc.).

Finally, the physician comprehensively analyzes the medical history, clinical manifestations, and auxiliary examination results to confirm the diagnosis and formulate a treatment plan.

Mastitis has different diagnostic criteria due to different types of symptoms:

Mastitis during lactation: Any young woman who experiences breast pain and swelling during lactation, accompanied by chills, high fever, and increased white blood cell count, can be diagnosed with the disease. However, when the symptoms are atypical, it is important to distinguish it from inflammatory breast cancer.

Non-lactation mastitis: There is no gold standard for diagnosis. The diagnosis is mainly based on comprehensive analysis of clinical symptoms, pathophysiology and auxiliary examinations, and the diagnosis is made on the basis of eliminating breast tuberculosis and specific granulomatous space-occupying lesions.