Clinical presentation of breast tuberculosis in eastern Anatolia

Authors: S. SELÇUK ATAMANALP, CEMAL GÜNDOĞDU, PINAR POLAT, GÜRKAN ÖZTÜRK, BÜLENT AYDINLI, DURKAYA ÖREN, MAHMUT BAŞOĞLU, M. İLHAN YILDIRGAN

Abstract: Breast tuberculosis is a very rare disease of the breast. This report aimed to review our clinical experience of 20 years and 7 cases of breast tuberculosis. Materials and methods: The records of 7 patients with breast tuberculosis were reviewed retrospectively. Results: The surgical procedure applied for breast tuberculosis comprised 1.3% of all surgical procedures of breast surgery. The mean age of the breast tuberculosis patients was 36 years, and all of the patients were female. The mean symptom duration was 12.8 months. The most common symptoms were painful breast mass in all the patients, 2 (28.6%) of whom had 8 cm or larger masses and sinus formation was observed in 5 (71.4%) patients. The diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological evaluation in all the patients. Five patients (71.4%) were treated with total excision of the breast mass, as well as the excision of sinus tracts, while abscess drainage with biopsy was applied in 2 patients (28.6%). All the patients were treated with triple or quadruple antituberculous drug regimens. Conclusion: Tuberculosis is a rare disease of the breast, and the breasts are a rare location for tuberculosis. The clinical presentation of breast tuberculosis patients in eastern Anatolia is different from the clinical presentation of such patients reported in the literature because their mean symptom duration is 1 year or over, all have a breast mass, which may be in very large sizes, and they present a sinus formation rate of 71.4%.

Keywords: Breast, tuberculosis

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