Isolated breast mucormycosis

Mucormycosis is unusual in surgical practice. Awareness of the classical findings leads to early detection. Excisional therapy whenever possible along with systemic antifungal treatment is the key to successful outcome. A 70 year old female, a known case of diabetes mellitus and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, on inhalational steroids and oral hypoglycemic agents, presented to us with complaints of sudden onset pain, redness and swelling of left breast. A diagnosis of severe mastitis was made and a release incision was taken. The entire breast became gangrenous in next 24 hours and simple mastectomy had to be performed as a life saving measure. Histopathology revealed mucormycosis of breast. To the best of our knowledge this is the first reported case of mucormycosis of breast in the English literature.