Spontaneous breast infarction associated with pregnancy presenting as a palpable mass

Spontaneous infarction of physiologically hyperplastic breast tissue or of an adenoma-fibroadenoma presenting as breast mass during pregnancy or in the early postpartum period is a recognized but rare clinical pathologic entity. Only 24 such cases have been reported in the English language literature to our knowledge. We report four additional cases of breast infarction associated with pregnancy, review the literature, and discuss possible etiologies and pathogenesis of this uncommon event.