Factors Affecting Recurrence of Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis

To investigate factors that may have an effect on recurrence by retrospectively analysing the data of patients who were followed up and treated for idiopathic granulomatous mastitis in this clinic.

Analytic study.

Department of General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Baskent University, Konya and Adana Practice and Research Hospitals between January 2010 and January 2021.

The data of patients who were histopathologically diagnosed with granulomatous mastitis were retrospectively analysed. The patients included in the study were divided into two groups: Recurrence (Group 1) and non-recurrence (Group 2). Patients with underlying etiological factors that may cause granulomatous inflammation such as infection, trauma, tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, and autoimmune disease were excluded from the study. The effects of other parameters (involvement area, follow-up duration, the time from the onset of complaints to diagnosis, side of involvement, breastfeeding, oral contraceptive use, redness, ulceration and/or discharge, preoperative histopathological diagnosis, diagnosis by any of the preoperative imaging techniques, preferred treatment method) on recurrence, were statistically analysed.

Furthermore, the analysis results showed no significant difference between the groups with and without recurrence with regard to any of the other variables such as follow-up period, size of the involvement area, presenting complaints, breast-feeding, preferred treatment alternative (steroid, steroid + surgery, surgery), and preferred surgical technique (p>0.05). The time from the onset of complaints to diagnosis was significantly longer in the recurrence group (p=0.001). In addition, the frequency of oral contraceptive use was statistically significantly higher in the recurrence group (Odds ratio=7.6, p=0.044).

The results of this study suggest that early diagnosis could prevent recurrence in patients with idiopathic granulomatous mastitis. Prospective randomised controlled studies are needed to support this thought. Key Words: Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis, Malignancy, Oral contraceptive, Steroid.