Identification of periductal mastitis and granulomatous lobular mastitis: a literature review

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Non-puerperal mastitis (NPM) is a breast disease with poor clinical manifestations, which seriously affects women’s health and quality of life. Due to the low incidence rate of the disease and the paucity of related research, there is much misdiagnosis and mis-management of periductal mastitis (PDM) and granulomatous lobular mastitis (GLM). Therefore, understanding the differences between PDM and GLM, in terms of etiology and clinical manifestations, is crucial for patient treatment and prognosis. At the same time, choosing different treatment methods may not achieve the best treatment effect, so the appropriate treatment method can often reduce the patient’s pain and reduce the recurrence of the patient’s disease. METHODS: The PubMed database was searched for articles published from 1 January 1990 to 16 June 2022 using the following search terms: “non-puerperal mastitis”, “periductal mastitis”, “granulomatous lobular mastitis”, “mammary duct ectasia”, “idiopathic granulomatous mastitis”, “plasma cell mastitis”, and “identification”. The key findings of the related literatures were analyzed and summarized. KEY CONTENT AND FINDINGS: We systematically described the key points in the differential diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of PDM and GLM. The use of different animal models for research and novel drugs to treat the disease were also described in this paper. CONCLUSIONS: The key points in the differentiation of the two diseases are clearly explained, and the respective treatment options and prognosis are summarized.