Incidence and Risk Factors of Breast Abscess in Lactating Women

Summary

A report 1 assessed the incidence of breast abscess in lactating women from 2 studies (a randomised controlled trial and a survey). A structured telephone interview was conducted to a total of 1193 primiparous women at 6 months postpartum in Australia. 207 women experienced mastitis and 171 were treated by antibiotics. Of the 1183 women who commenced breastfeeding, 0.4% (5/1183) experienced a breast abscess. All five had received antibiotics prior to abscess development, thus 2.9% (5/171) of women who took antibiotics for mastitis experienced a breast abscess.

In a prospective study 2 to assess the contributing factors in puerperal breast abscess 128 lactating women with breast infection were followed. Of these, 102 had mastitis (80%) and 26 had breast abscess (20%). All mastitis patients were treated with antibiotics and none developed an abscess. Duration of symptoms and healing were longer in cases of abscess. Multivariate analyses showed that duration of symptoms was the only independent variable for abscess development.