Newer Innovations in Treatment of Retracted Nipple: Correspondence

Abstract

To the Editor: We read the article published by Jain S et al.entitled ‘Newer Innovations in Treatment of RetractedNipple’ with interest [1].Wewouldliketocongratulatethe authors for taking up such a novel method and doing acommendable job.Treating retracted nipple by vigorous sucking by husbandis cheap and simple intervention which can be administeredeven in primary health care setup. However, there are someissues which require clarification. Authors mention thatGroup C cases were put on frequent and vigorous suckingat nipples by husbands. However, authors do not mentionabout the frequency, duration of intervention, gestationalage at which it was started and whether it was evenlyfollowed by all members in that group? How can authorsbe sure that cases in group A and B did not receive theintervention under study? Wouldn’t it be a potentialconfounding factor in this study? Whether group A and Bcases were clearly explained that they should not indulge insuch acts. If these issues werenot addressed, then the groupsare not truly comparable and the results should beinterpreted with a pinch of salt.The disadvantages of this method include theoreticalchances of transmitting infection to newborn due to poororal hygiene in father, trauma to nipple and social accept-ability. Social and cultural acceptability is an importantfactor restricting the use of this controversial method. Evendoctors in our setup had mixed opinion regarding this. Toknow about the patient acceptability regarding this methodin our setup, we did a questionnaire survey among antenataland postnatal mothers in our hospital. Out of 121 respon-dents who completed the questionnaire, 16 (13.2 %) felt itwasacceptable,88(72.7 %)felt itwasnot acceptableand24(19.8 %) did not have any comments. Though our observa-tion completely contradicts the patient acceptability ratio(79.7 %) found in the study, it would be pertinent to knowhow the authors counselled their patients before includingthem into the study, any specific counselling methods used,problems faced and how they overcame those problems.Though, this method sounds novel and has the potentialfor improving outcomes in nipple retraction, the patientacceptability seems to be a crucial factor. Therefore, propercounselling regarding nipple retraction, its consequencesand lack of other treatment methods should be emphasizedbefore introducing this concept to the mothers. Also, thesuperiority of this method over other existing methodsshould be confirmed by further trials.Reference