🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Redness, swelling, heat, and pain are typical clinical signs of inflammation. If these symptoms appear in the breast, it is highly likely that the patient has an inflammatory breast disease, such as acute mastitis or ductal ectasia syndrome. One must also consider the possibility of inflammatory breast cancer.
Acute mastitis is the most common acute suppurative infection of the breast, typically occurring during lactation. Prior to onset, patients often have a history of nipple fissures or milk retention. Symptoms include redness, swelling, heat, severe pain, and prominent systemic signs such as fever. Once abscess formation occurs, it may spontaneously rupture or require surgical drainage; after pus drainage, redness, swelling, heat, and pain subside. Ductal ectasia syndrome, also known as plasma cell mastitis, occurs in non-lactating women. A prior history of nipple discharge is common. Patients develop a breast mass followed by local redness, swelling, heat, and pain. Pain is often mild, and systemic symptoms are minimal. Later, the mass softens and forms an abscess, which ruptures and forms a fistula. The wound often fails to heal or repeatedly breaks open. Inflammatory breast cancer primarily affects pregnant or lactating women, with abrupt onset and rapid progression. Affected breasts show redness, swelling, heat, and pain, spreading to the entire breast within a short time. It easily invades axillary lymph nodes and contralateral breast. There are usually no significant systemic symptoms, and antibiotic treatment is ineffective. Skin ulceration rarely occurs, and prognosis is poor.
Early and effective treatment during the initial stage of redness, swelling, heat, and pain in acute mastitis can resolve the inflammation, avoiding suppuration and surgery, thus shortening the course of illness. Therefore, anyone experiencing redness, swelling, heat, and pain in the breast should seek medical attention promptly.
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