Clinical therapeutic evaluation of vacuum sealing drainage and precise ultrasound-guided debridement in the treatment of non-lactational mastitis

The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of vacuum sealing drainage (VSD) and precise ultrasound-guided debridement in the treatment of non-lactational mastitis and to determine the optimal surgical treatment. A set of 60 cases diagnosed with non-lactational mastitis who had received surgical treatment at the Department of Thoracic and Breast Surgery of Xiamen Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Xiamen, China) between July 2017 and June 2019 were included. According to the surgical method, 30 patients were assigned to the VSD group and 30 patients were assigned to the precise ultrasound-guided debridement group. The clinicopathological data of the two groups were compared. The overall rates of recurrence and new incidence were 6.8 and 8.5%, respectively. The mean total disease course was 5.3 months and all of the patients were cured after treatment. Except for the hospitalization time and postoperative pain scores, the clinicopathological data between the two groups were similar. The hospitalization time in the VSD group was significantly longer than that in the precise ultrasound-guided debridement group. Pain scores on the first and third days after the operation in the precise ultrasound-guided debridement group were significantly higher than those in the VSD group (P=0.008 and 0.001, respectively). In conclusion, the efficacies of VSD and precise ultrasound-guided debridement for the treatment of non-lactational mastitis were generally both satisfactory without significant differences. Of note, the former is suitable for patients with inverted nipples and obvious skin ulcerations, while the latter is mainly suitable for patients with abscesses, small surgical incisions and those who require short hospital stays.