[Management of mammillary discharge. Apropos of 38 cases]

Abstract

The authors offer a diagnostic approach in cases of mammillary discharge and present a study of 38 cases of spontaneous discharge. The diagnosis is based on clinical findings combined with supplementary examinations, beginning with a cytological examination of the discharges, either bilateral or, in most cases, unilateral. The supplementary investigations are standard: mammography, galactography, with more and more frequent recourse to ultrasonography. If warranted on sufficient grounds, biopsy by sectorectomy is carried out to provide a histological diagnosis. The observed results show epithelial vegetation with (38%) and without (37.5%) atypical cells, the histological interpretation of which is: benign papilloma: 50 percent, diffuse papillomatosis: 17 percent, galactophoric carcinoma: 1 case and galactophoric ectasias: 22 percent. This study is compared to the results of Mouriquand et al [10] on induced discharges, where the frequency of papilloma and papillomatosis is slightly inferior by about 5 percent.