Management of Patients with Granulomatous Mastitis: Analysis of 31 Cases

BACKGROUND: Granulomatous mastitis is a benign recurrent disease. Accurate diagnosis is only by histopathology. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 31 cases with histological diagnosis were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Mean follow-up was 42.4 months for recurrent and 27.8 months for non-recurrent cases. Etiology was tuberculosis in 1 case. 5 cases (16%) relapsed. 6 patients (19.3%) treated with abscess drainage healed completely, but 50% relapsed. Relapses were treated with excision or steroids. Steroid therapy was the initial treatment in 12 cases (38.7%), with 1 relapse (8.3%) which was treated in the same manner. 2 patients had incomplete response necessitating excision, and another 2 developed abscesses which were treated with steroids or excision after drainage. Surgical excision was preferred in 12 cases (38.7%) due to suspicion for carcinoma in 8 patients (25.8%) and/or low probability of poor cosmetic outcome. All healed without complication, and recurrence was observed in 1 case (8.3%) which was treated with re-excision. CONCLUSION: Both excision and steroid therapy had low and similar relapse rates, but excision was superior to steroid therapy in providing strict diagnosis with much faster healing and fewer complications. In refractory cases, and when deformity is inevitable, steroid therapy should be preferred.