14 Facts About Puerperal mastitis

Symptoms are similar for puerperal and nonpuerperal mastitis but predisposing factors and treatment can be very different.

Puerperal mastitis is the inflammation of the breast in connection with pregnancy, breastfeeding or weaning.

Light cases of Puerperal mastitis are often called breast engorgement; the distinction is overlapping and possibly arbitrary or subject to regional variations.

Term nonpuerperal mastitis describes inflammatory lesions of the breast occurring unrelated to pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Names for non-puerperal mastitis are not used very consistently and include mastitis, subareolar abscess, duct ectasia, periductal inflammation, Zuska's disease and others.

Periductal Puerperal mastitis is a form of nonlactational Puerperal mastitis, and is characterized by inflammation of the subareolar ducts.

Lactation Puerperal mastitis usually affects only one breast and the symptoms can develop quickly.

Since the 1980s Puerperal mastitis has often been divided into non-infectious and infectious sub-groups.

In lactation Puerperal mastitis, frequent emptying of both breasts by breastfeeding is essential.

Nonpuerperal mastitis is treated by medication and possibly aspiration or drainage.

In lactational Puerperal mastitis, antibiotics are not needed in the overwhelming majority of cases and should be used only for bacterial infections.

Outside the US it is commonly used for puerperal and nonpuerperal cases, in the US the term nonpuerperal mastitis is rarely used and alternative names such as duct ectasia, subareolar abscess and plasma cell mastitis are more frequently used.

Chronic cystic Puerperal mastitis is an older name for fibrocystic disease.

American usage: mastitis usually refers to puerperal mastitis with symptoms of systemic infection.