Breast injury
Bruising of the breast is the presence of closed tissue damage as a result of injuries. This injury is very painful, causes a feeling of discomfort and provokes the appearance of a hematoma. Dense formations may be observed in the area of injury.
The content of the article:
Causes of breast injuries
Symptoms of breast injury
Diagnosis of breast injury
Treatment of breast injury
Breast injury
Bruises can be not only closed, but also isolated or combined. Closed types include a hematoma, a bruise, and open ones can be of a stab and cut type, gunshot, as a result of a bite. Bruises as a type of injury, mammologists state only in 2 percent of all cases of damage. Most often, injuries in the chest area are the result of a general injury, combined with other injuries in the chest area. These can be fractures of the sternum, bruises of this area, as well as damage to the ribs. These injuries can be accompanied by complications in the form of suppuration, severe bleeding and even pain shock.
Causes of breast injuries
Injuries in the chest area, leading to damage to the mammary glands, are most often domestic. This includes a “collision” with furniture, bruises in public transport as a result of sudden braking, you can get them while playing with children, unexpectedly appearing door jambs can cause a car accident that caused a chest bump on the steering wheel and much more.
Injury to the mammary glands disrupts the process of blood circulation in this area, blood vessels are damaged. As a result, there is an outpouring of blood under the skin, which quickly stops if the bruise is weak. The structure of the mammary glands allows them to withstand many direct blows. But bruising of very sensitive areas in the nipple area and halos can cause pain shock even with very weak blows.
Violence or careless handling of sharp objects is a fairly common cause of open injuries, but they are rare compared to the frequency of manifestations of closed types. Open injuries often become the site of the formation of an infectious infection, often of a type that cannot be affected by standard types of antibiotics.
Symptoms of breast injury
Visually closed bruises in this area can be diagnosed by the formation of hematomas, which can be both subcutaneous and deep. A hematoma is an accumulation of blood poured into the breast tissue, which has a limited visually perceived area. Most often, these areas are restored independently, but there are cases of necrosis. If an infection enters the area of hematomas, suppuration, abscess may form. For these reasons, a bruised breast, the treatment of which is not started in a timely manner, can cause more serious problems.
Usually, patients complain of pain or the formation of a slight tumor at the site of the impact. But fears that this may cause cancerous formations are in vain. However, there are precedents when, for unknown reasons, a breast injury provoked the formation of tumors of different quality. But the reasons for such rebirths have not yet been established. Mammologists state examples when those patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer had previously bruised mammary glands. Those women who develop nodular mastopathy are always at risk. Bruises of the chest for them are fraught with developing into malignant formations.
The danger of necrosis is also expressed in the possible deformation of the breast due to the formation of a scar replacing fatty tissue. This can also cause skin retraction, creating a visual impression of the presence of an oncological type of pathology. Taking into account such features that can be caused by just a bruise: the appearance of hematomas, seals, a sharp change in skin color, a specialist’s consultation is required.
If there is a bruise of the breast — “what to do?” shouldn’t be a question. There is only one solution — an urgent appeal to a mammologist, who will appoint the necessary studies to prevent possible consequences.
Diagnosis of breast injury
Diagnosis is an important step in determining the complexity of the injury and its possible consequences. Naturally, in order to avoid an incorrect assessment of the situation and the fear of prescribing a diagnosis, it is best for those women who have not yet encountered these methods to have at least a general idea about it. Failure to diagnose can lead to serious changes that may not be possible to correct.
When visiting a mammologist, the patient is waiting for:
visual inspection and probing of injury sites. False modesty or prejudice prohibiting the doctor from performing palpation and examination is completely inappropriate here. It is thanks to such actions that the doctor can detect dense formations, swellings;
in doubtful situations, ultrasound is mandatory. Such actions will not only determine the structure of these formations, but also establish the cause of their appearance.
Since a bruise of the breast, the consequences of which may be irreversible, can only be assessed by diagnostic means, this is what will allow the doctor to determine what further actions need to be taken. If it is possible to establish with certainty that this injury is not serious, there is no need to prescribe serious courses of treatment, force the patient to take medications and undergo various therapeutic methods. It is enough to do with resorbing hematomas with ointments, light local analgesic action.
Treatment of breast injury
One of the important actions that are required from the patient for effective treatment of breast injury is to limit the mobility of the breast itself. It will need to be provided with a special bandage that fixes the chest itself in an elevated position. Naturally, during the treatment period, you will have to forget about loose blouses with a low neckline and dresses that do not wear a bra. But this requires health and the further preservation of female beauty. Otherwise, it may happen that these types of clothes will have to be permanently removed from your wardrobe. It is important to understand that it is dangerous to try to fix this situation with different witch doctors or “grandmother’s” methods. Only a specialist mammologist can predict which risk group the injury can be attributed to, and how to treat a bruise of the breast. This seemingly ordinary injury can cause cancer. But to prevent this from happening, it is necessary to consult a doctor.
In the presence of pain in the places of injury, the doctor prescribes special blockades of the retromammary type. When carrying out accelerating therapy for the elimination of hematoma formations, mandatory compliance with dry and warm conditions for the breast is prescribed. In addition, heparin ointment or troxevazine is used as a rubbing. For a normal hematoma, it takes from one to three months for its complete resorption.
If the hematoma formation is large, then special antibiotic agents are connected to therapy. An abscess that manifests itself after injury is subjected to the same types of therapy as purulent mastitis. A puncture is taken from the area of suppuration, a drainage outlet is created. Surgical intervention in the presence of bruises is very rare. The need for it arises when blood enters the fiber of the retromammary region or directly into the gland tissues themselves. This operation is quite serious, requires a highly qualified surgeon. In case of errors, it can lead to a complete violation of the functionality of the gland, loss of sensitivity.
The last of the treatment methods is resection. The decision on partial or complete resection — excision of the breast — is made by a doctor only when diagnosing the formation of cysts, the so-called false cyst, cicatricial changes, the presence of an organized type of hematoma, a node having the similarity of a tumor. There are no other options for a successful solution to the problem, except for sectoral resection.
The listed methods cover all types of possible bruises that have been encountered in practice in the field of mammology, but work is still underway to study their effect on the functions of the mammary glands.
