Management of Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis: A Single Institution Experience

There are multiple management modalities for idiopathic granulomatous mastitis, but the treatment of choice is still under debate. This study aims to evaluate the diagnosis and outcomes of different management modalities in patients with idiopathic granulomatous mastitis and to identify the risk factors associated with recurrence.

This is a single-group cohort study that included those patients who had idiopathic granulomatous mastitis. Ultrasonography was conducted for all of the cases using LOGIQ E9 with an ML6-15 transducer (5-15 MHz). A core needle biopsy was conducted to take samples from the cases for histopathological examination. The patients were put on steroid therapy. Whenever the cases did not respond to the steroid therapy, treatment with a combination of low-dose steroids and methotrexate was started. In the lack of response to conservative treatments, surgical interventions were started.

Sixty-three cases with a confirmed histopathological diagnosis of granulomatous mastitis were included. The mean age of patients was 35.7 years. The history of more than one childbirth was positive in a large portion of the cases (82.5%). The lesion side was unilateral in 58.7% of the cases. A large proportion of the lesions were classified as BIRADS category 2. The best treatment outcome was yielded by a combination of low-dose steroids and incision and drainage. The factors of age, lesion area (cm²), skin thickening, and white blood cell count enhanced the chance of recurrence.

Incision and drainage in combination with a low dose of steroids can give an acceptable outcome with a low rate of recurrence.