Original Article

Mastalgia in Daily Practice

10.5152/tjbh.2013.31

  • Mehmet Celal Kızılkaya
  • Fazilet Erözgen
  • Ahmet Kocakuşak
  • Cihad Tatar
  • Muzaffer Akıncı
  • Sefa Tüzün
  • Rafet Kaplan

Received Date: 17.02.2013 Accepted Date: 16.05.2013 Eur J Breast Health 2013;9(4):191-194

Objective:

Mastalgia is a common complaint encountered in polyclinics. The causative pathologies of mastalgia are either because of the breast or other regions. We aimed to share the causes of mastalgia which we detected in the polyclinics.

Materials and Methods:

The retrospective evaluation of the files of 1150 patients with mastalgia out of 3200 patients who had applied at our breast polyclinics between June 2011 and August 2012 was carried out. When evaluation of 620 patients with mastalgia had been made, exclusion criteria were the presence of concomitant complaints such as mass, discharge, retracted nipple. Patients with cyclic mastalgia complaints were also excluded from the study. Pure complaints of mastalgia in 530 patients were evaluated for organic pathologies in regard to anemnesis, physical examination, radiological and laboratory findings.

Results:

When 530 patients with pure mastalgia were evaluated, breast pathologies were detected in 115 patients. Fibrocystic mastopathy in 67, fibroadenoma in 18, cyst in 19, abscess in 3, granulomatous mastitis in 2, breast cancer in 2 and high prolactin levels in 4 patients were detected. The remaining 20 patients were sent to radiology guided biopsies and were excluded from the records. A total of 35 patients with mastalgia had had psychiatric drug usage either currently or in the past. No breast pathology was detected in 395 of 530 patients and 53 of those 395 patients were sent to orthopedic consultation in whom 36 were found to suffer from cervical or shoulder pathologies.

Conclusion:

When patients with mastalgia were evaluated, it was detected that both breast pathologies and nonbreast problems concerning the breast were the reasons for admission to polyclinic because of the pain. Reasons for pain with no breast origin should also be investigated in patients with complaints of pure mastalgia and without radiological evidence of breast disease.

Keywords: Mastalgia, polyclinic, mastodinea