Surgery for Benign Breast Disorders

Abstract

Benign non-neoplastic conditions of the breast show a wide variety of proliferative and regressive changes in the breast parenchyma, epithelial elements, and stroma. Some of these form distinct entities, but the majority has been grouped together, and various terms used to collectively describe these changes. Terminology includes chronic mastitis, benign mammary dysplasia, cystic mastopathy, fibroadenosis, and most commonly fibrocystic disease. The latter refers clinically to a condition characterized by painful breasts with tender nodularity that may be localized or generalized. Pathologically fibrocystic disease is associated with fibrosis, adenosis, apocrine metaplasia, epithelial hyperplasia, and cyst formation. Cyclical pain and nodularity is very common in women of reproductive age and is considered to be physiological rather than pathological. Focal nodularity is seen in women of all ages and is the most common cause of a breast lump.