Epidemiological Study of Suppurative Diseases of the Breast in Korean Women

The pattern of the surgical breast diseases in Korea may be different to that of the Western countries. In our partcular situation, it has been believed that suppurative diseases of the breast ought to be considered into as one of the so called Big Three; dysplasia, fibroadenoma. carcinoma. The purpose of the present article is present a clinical and epidemiological review on 793 cases of suppurative diseases of breast treated at Surgical Department of Ewha Womans University Hospital from January, 1973 to September 1982. Analysis of these cases provided the following results. 1) Among the suppurative diseases of the breast, The 542 cases(68.35%) were patients with simple mastitis. and the 251 cases(31.65%) were patients with breast abscess. 2) The peak incidence was in the age group from 21 to 30, and its number of patients was 379 cases(47.79%) The extreme of age was presented by age of 19 days and 73 years old. 3) The disease was more frequently occured in primipara(69.88%) than multipara(30.12%). Along the subsequent parity, it was decreased in number. 4) The disease was most frequently occured within postpartum 1 month. In this review, the suppurative diseases occured within postpartum 1 month were 75.70% of the postpartum patients. 5) On physical examination, everyone with the suppurative disease of the breast had tenderness(100%). 6) There was no predilection area between the right and left breast, its ratio right to left was 1.2 : 1. And the ratio unilateral to bilateral was 3.8 : 1. 7) More than a half of the patients with suppurative disease of the breast came to clinics for treatment within 1 week(57.76%). 8) Reviewing the yearly distribution, In 1978, the largest number of patients, 154 cases(19.42%), were treated. 9) According to 253 cases whose bacteriological survays were available, Staphy-lococcus aureus was the most predominating organism(86.56%). 10) In treatment, incision and drainage combined with antibiotic therapy were performed in 39.85%, and incision and drainag only was performed in 15.13%.