What is periductal mastitis?
Periductal mastitis is inflammation around a breast duct. In duct ectasia, the milky substance filling the duct occasionally attracts infection. The infection is usually very mild and caused by one of the bacteria which normally lives on the skin where it does no harm. Unfortunately within a breast duct filled with milk, the bacteria can multiply and cause some inflammation. This causes non-cyclical breast pain, usually directly behind the nipple. The pain may be a mild aching, but often there is associated needle pain behind the nipple and spasms like the milk is being let down when breast feeding. The nipple may feel itchy. This can be treated with a short course of antibiotics, usually metronidazole, but it will often settle by itself. What causes breast abscess? Breast abscess is most common while breast feeding, but can occur at other times as well. It can occasionally occur as a progression of periductal mastitis as described above. If the infection set up in the milk duct breaks
