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Review
. 2023 Feb 16:12:926396.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.926396. eCollection 2022.

Fat necrosis: A consultant's conundrum

Jinita Majithia  1 , Purvi Haria  1 , Palak Popat  1 , Aparna Katdare  1 , Sonal Chouhan  1 , Kunal Bharat Gala  1 , Suyash Kulkarni  1 , Meenakshi Thakur  1
Affiliations
Review

Fat necrosis: A consultant's conundrum

Jinita Majithia et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Fat necrosis of the breast is a benign non-suppurative inflammation of the adipose tissue and often mimics breast cancers, posing a diagnostic challenge for the clinician and radiologist. It has a myriad of appearances on different imaging techniques, ranging from the pathognomic oil cyst and benign dystrophic calcifications to indeterminate focal asymmetries, architectural distortions, and masses. A combination of different modalities can assist a radiologist in reaching a logical conclusion to avoid unnecessary interventions. The aim of this review article was to provide a comprehensive literature on the various imaging appearances of fat necrosis in the breast. Although a purely benign entity, the imaging appearances on mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging can be quite misleading, especially in post-therapy breasts. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive and all-inclusive review on fat necrosis with a proposed algorithm allowing a systematic approach to diagnosis.

Keywords: breast imaging; fat necrosis; mammography; radiology; ultrasonography.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Algorithm for the approach to fat necrosis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Algorithm for the approach to calcifications seen in fat necrosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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