Bilateral tubercular mastitis

Abstract

Breast tuberculosis is a rare form of tuberculosis. Moreover the disease is often overlooked and misdiagnosed as carcinoma or pyogenic abscess. Reports on breast tuberculosis from India have been few; reported incidence of breast tuberculosis amongst the total number of mammary conditions varies between 0.64 and 3.59 per cent. Bilateral involvement is still more uncommon (3%). Most accepted view for spread of infection is centripetal lymphatic spread as axillary node involvement was shown to occur in 50 to 75 per cent of cases of tubercular mastitis. Here we re­port a case of a young female who presented with draining sinuses in the breast and no axillary lymphadenopathy. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of breast lump showed evidence of granulomatous mastitis. She was given therapeutic trial of four drug antitubercular treatment. Both the lump disappeared and sinus healed after six months of antitubercular treatment. Thus a retrospective diagnosis of tu­bercular mastitis was made.