Acute mastitis is an acute suppurative infection of the mammary gland that occurs most often in postpartum breastfeeding women, and is especially common in primiparous women. The infection is usually caused by the invasion of germs from the nipple breach or fissure. It can occur at any time during the breastfeeding period, but is most common 3 to 4 weeks after delivery, so it is also called puerperal mastitis. Perhaps because I work in an obstetrics and gynecology hospital, there are a lot of patients with acute mastitis who come to the outpatient clinic because of abscesses. There are many patients who are first seen and many who have been seen in other hospitals. These patients who had already been seen in other hospitals had been treated with antibiotics, and after a few days of repeated treatment, an abscess finally formed, and the doctor advised the patient to “return the milk, make an incision and drain the breast, and clean and change the dressing every day”. There is no problem with these recommendations and the previous treatments, because that is what the textbooks say: if there is an abscess, you should make an incision and drain it, and you should make the incision bigger, so that it can drain well, and you should also “drain against the mouth”, and then you should put a lot of sterilized gauze in it, and every day, you should take out the soiled gauze, and then put in a new gauze. Until the wound heals. Just look at the pictures to see how much it hurts. Because new tissue needs to grow to fill in the missing tissue, it takes a long time, often a month or more, and during this time both the mother and the baby suffer – the mother and the baby are missing one of the most important links between them as they can’t breastfeed; the baby is missing the best source of food and the risk of getting sick rises; The time that should have been spent with the baby is spent on doctor’s appointments, hospitalization, and medication changes. By the time you get well this time, you basically won’t be breastfeeding again either, one because the milk production is not what it used to be, and two because the baby is no longer adapted to breastfeeding. And there will be huge scarring on the breasts, creating a permanent pain on the chest! How does this ailment develop? 1, the invasion of bacteria Bacteria from the nipple skin rupture or cracked areola into, along the lymphatic vessels spread to the mammary gland gland tissue body and the surrounding fat and fibrous tissue, causing acute purulent cellulitis of the breast. There are also a few cases because of infection in other parts of the body, bacteria spread to the breast through the blood circulation, resulting in the onset of disease. 2.Milk stasis Milk is rich in nutrients, which is conducive to bacterial reproduction. The causes of milk stagnation are: ① abnormal shape of nipple or inversion and failure to correct in time, resulting in poor milk discharge. ② Excess milk, excess milk can not be discharged in time and retained in the breast, resulting in incomplete emptying. ③ Obstruction of milk ducts makes it difficult to discharge milk, such as trauma, surgery caused by large milk duct obstruction, deformation, inflammation of the milk duct itself, tumor and external compression, all of which can affect normal breastfeeding. 3, cracked nipples Although breastfeeding is instinctive, but also to have “over” professor, if the delivery of the mother failed to grasp the correct breastfeeding skills, or the baby’s sucking is not normal, or excessive cleaning, wipe the nipple will cause nipple cracks, for bacteria to enter the door opened. To summarize the above, it basically means, “Bacteria enter the body through the cracked nipple, just in time to meet the milk stagnation, and acute mastitis occurs”. Generally speaking, all of the above conditions must be present for acute mastitis to occur, but of course, there is one more extremely important condition – the body’s immunity. If the body’s immunity is good enough, the inflammation will not make much noise and will be quickly eliminated. We have found that the concentration of bacteria in the abscess is not very high, and as long as most of the pus is extracted by puncture and the body’s immunity is relied upon, the abscess cavity will heal quickly. Fortunately, most young mothers have very good immune system, and during this period of time, mothers have sufficient nutritional support to deal with the bacteria in the abscess is really a small case. Through the treatment of many patients, it was found that most of the patients with “Acute Mastitis Abscess Formation” do not need to be incised and drained! They can be cured with puncture and drainage, topical herbs, and short-term oral antibiotics! And the recovery is faster, more economical, less painful, and leaves no scar after healing! During the treatment, breastfeeding is stopped for just under a week, and you can breastfeed once your temperature is normal. After many practices, we have formed a more mature treatment experience and achieved extremely satisfactory treatment results. We would like to remind breastfeeding women that if they notice any signs of abscess formation, they should consult a doctor as soon as possible, as the earlier the treatment is carried out, the quicker the recovery and the less painful it will be. Below are pictures of the treatment of two patients. The patient with the large abscess took about 1 month to heal, and the patient with the small abscess was basically well in 2 weeks.