Abstract
Treatment strategies for nipple injury are mainly based on aetiology. However, some damaged nipples do not heal after the aetiology was corrected. This study retrospectively analyses the effect of debridement for treating chronic injury of lactating nipples. The medical records on nipple injury management in the authors’ department from December 2015 to January 2020 were retrospectively analysed. A total of 167 patients were enrolled and grouped based on the presence or absence of nipple debridement. The difference in the healing effect, pain relief rate and recurrence rate of nipple injury between the two groups after 1 week was examined. The cure rate of nipple injury in the intervention group (54.3%) was significantly higher than in the control group (26.7%). In addition, the complete pain relief rate in the intervention group (48.1%) was significantly higher than in the control group (23.3%). However, the recurrence rates between the two groups (36.4% (16/44) vs. 34.8% (8/23)) had no statistically significant differences. For patients with no improvement after correction of the aetiology of the in the nipple damage, debridement can improve the healing environment of nipple breakage and thus relieve nipple pain.
Highlights
Treatment strategies for nipple injury are mainly based on aetiology
(1) Patients with nipple injuries within 4 months after delivery who presented with white matter keratinisation and necrotic tissue in the nipple, (2) patients with repeated nipple pain, milk deposition, or mastitis in the corresponding area, (3) those whose nipple injuries remained for more than two weeks after the aetiology was corrected, (4) those who have no acute mastitis symptoms such as fever and (5) those whose follow-up period reached 1 month and their information was complete were included in the study
In the control group consisted of 86 patients, 23(26.7%) patients were cured, 29(33.7%) patients improved, 34(39.5%) patients were in whom the treatment was ineffective (χ2 = 13.451;P = 0.001) (Table 2)
Summary
Treatment strategies for nipple injury are mainly based on aetiology. some damaged nipples do not heal after the aetiology was corrected. The difference in the healing effect, pain relief rate and recurrence rate of nipple injury between the two groups after 1 week was examined. To evaluate the symptomatic treatment of nipple injuries, Vieira et al.[10] analysed 496 studies on the promotion of nipple injury healing, including the use of lanolin, the combination of lanolin and nipple shields, breast milk, hydrogels, polyethylene film dressings, sprays and distilled water containing chlorhexidine and alcohol. These results are uncertain due to the sample size. The authors retrospectively selected patients with nipple injury who had no remission after correcting the aetiology and analysed the difference in the treatment effect between patients who had nipple debridement and those without any treatment
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