Plasmacytoid mastitis – the most difficult breast disease

  Plasmacytoid mastitis, called “acne canker sores” in Chinese medicine, is a chronic inflammatory disease of the breast based on dilation of the breast ducts and infiltration of plasma cells. It is a chronic inflammatory disease of the breast based on dilation of the breast ducts and infiltration of plasma cells. The clinical manifestations are usually non-lactating or non-pregnant, often with nipple indentation or overflow, and the initial lump is mostly located in the areola. The nipples often secrete powder-like material, which has a foul odor. A small number of patients have nipple discharge, which is bloody or watery. The disease is prone to recurrence, forming fistulas, and the course of the disease is sometimes years long and difficult to heal, causing great pain to the patient, so it is called the most difficult mastopathy. The incidence of this disease is on the rise and is often confused with acute mastitis, breast tuberculosis and breast cancer, which can easily lead to misdiagnosis.  If the lesion develops further, it can form a large inflammatory mass. Sometimes the inflammation is acute and becomes an abscess, and the pus is often mixed with slag-like material, and there is also slag-like material discharged from the nipple orifice, which is called plasmacytoid mastitis because there are most plasma cells around the necrotic tissue. Currently, Western medicine considers surgery to be the only effective method of choice for this disease. In the case of surgical excision of diseased tissue, the affected ducts and subductal lesions should be resected in sections if there is nipple discharge and ductal dilatation is evident; local mass excision can be performed for smaller masses; mastectomy is performed directly for larger, recurrent and complicated masses. This often causes more trauma and is prone to recurrence, making it difficult for patients to accept.  In contrast, Chinese herbal medicine has good results in the treatment of acne vulgaris, especially in complicated cases with long-term rupture and recurrence, which should be combined with identification and stage, and internal and external treatment. According to the order of symptoms, the disease can be clinically divided into the lump phase, abscess phase, fistula phase, and recovery phase. Internal treatment should be emphasized before the ulceration, and external treatment should be emphasized after the ulceration. Sometimes the combination is carried out with the advantages of less trauma, less pain, less change in breast appearance, and good efficacy and less recurrence, which is easily accepted by patients.  The majority of plasmacytoid mastitis occurs in women clinically. According to Chinese medicine, “Women’s nipples belong to the liver and breasts belong to the stomach,” and the spleen and stomach are mutually exclusive. In clinical practice, we often see patients with white lipid-like secretions in the affected nipples or pus, which are caused by such substances blocking the milk channels, forming lumps, and turning heat into heat for a long time. Only through the smooth discharge of the produced lipid-like substances or reducing their production in two ways can the internal causes be solved and the problem can be solved at root. Therefore, if the liver and spleen are treated, the liver meridian will be unblocked, the breast lobe will be drained smoothly, and the secretions will no longer accumulate internally; the spleen will be healthy, the diet will enter the stomach and be fully transported and transformed into water, grain and essence, which will normally spread throughout the body, so that there will be no more production of fluid, phlegm and saliva, and the secretions in the breast lobe will be reduced.  If the disease is not effectively treated, most of them turn into fistula stage. Therefore, a reasonable and flexible combination of external treatment methods is necessary to cure the disease. The common methods of external treatment include dressing, drug twist drainage, gauze drainage, incision, dragline, irrigation, cotton padding and nipple orthopedic method, etc. The selection of the above methods must be based on the stage of the disease, the scope, location and number of lesions, etc. Flexible combination. Therefore, Chinese medicine treatment of plasmacytoid mastitis has formed a set of more systematic comprehensive therapy, the efficacy of the exact, become an advantage of Chinese medicine treatment of breast diseases.