What is a breast lump?
A lump in the breast is, in medical terms, a breast lump: a lump or mass in the breast, palpable and can be painful. It is a very common reason for consulting a general practitioner or specialist. Most of these lesions in the breast are discovered by women themselves, often accidentally in routine self-examination , or when you have glandular disturbance and scanned. Other times, however, are finding in routine medical examinations and periodic reviews.
How is it manifested?
The first clinical manifestation is usually the appearance of one or more tumors in one or both breasts. Sometimes that or those tumors can be painful or accompanied by bloating or signs of inflammation, deformity of the breast, nipple retraction or secretion of it.
How is it diagnosed?
To a patient having a breast lump, the fundamental basis for the initial approach is in achieving adequate clinical history.
It is important to ask the patient risk factors, personal and family
history of disease and especially breast cancer drugs, obstetric and
gynecological previous history, the reason goes to the consultation and
the context in which the visit takes place.
The next step in the study of this disease is the physical test that
will try to collect as much information about the breast lump: number,
location, size, shape, consistency, boundaries, mobility, date of onset
or detection and amendments to the menstrual cycle, other accompanying
signs, etc. Existing above the collarbone and neck lymph nodes in the armpits and also examined.
Finally, we will resort to certain additional tests to help diagnose
the tumor and especially to clarify the benign or malignant nature of
it:
- Ultrasound , which will tell us if the nodule is solid or cystic characteristics
- Mammography
- Fine needle aspiration needle cytology
- Biopsy .
The first place goes a woman with breast problem is usually to your
family doctor, hence they should know these pathological abnormalities
and mode of action in respect of them.
In many cases the primary care physician can handle the problem, at least initially, especially:
In other cases, set forth below, the patient should be referred to hospital for specialized study:
- In young women more sensitive to pain (mild or moderate degrees of pain) with no palpable lesions nodules.
- In women under 50 who presented nipple discharge without other associated problems and where the possibility that it is a side effect of a drug, for example suspected.
Treatment depends on the diagnosis made after a thorough study of the breast lump.
Treatment can range from medicines (eg antibiotics if a breast abscess
or certain hormonal drugs if diagnosed cystic breast disease) to
different surgical procedures (lumpectomy or simple excision of the
tumor while preserving the breast, if benign tumors until mastectomy or
removal of the entire breast, where cancer).
In the male breast lump
Although less common, men can also have breast lumps that require study
and treatment, in many cases similar to that discussed for the breast
lump in women. The presence of any symptom or finding breast changes in adult male, should suggest the possibility of a malignant tumor .
Most patients with the syndrome have a breast lump below the areola,
hard and painless, 1 to 2 cm., Which adheres to the skin and causes
phenomena of retraction or nipple deviation.
If confirmed the existence of breast cancer in men after the
appropriate studies, treatment is also surgical, with the removal of the
breast.
Final Thoughts
Breast examination by the patient herself, to discover changes in
consistency of the breast, lymph and even more subtle changes such as
shrinkage of the skin. The great advantage of breast self-examination is that women learn to know your breasts.
Many patients go to their family doctor first when present a problem in their breasts. This should target the problem, solve it if is trained or send the woman to a specialist when the situation demands.
Before an irregular, hard, ill-defined and fixed to surrounding structures breast lump should always rule out breast cancer.
Nipple retraction, associated with eczema thereof and / or tumor behind the areola, should be suspected breast cancer.
Ana Palacios Marqués Specialist Obstetrics and Gynecology. Hospital Marina Baixa (Villajoyosa, Alicante)
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