EFFECTS ON THE BREAST OF REMOVAL OF THE NIPPLE OR SEVERING OF THE DUCTS

Abstract

IS IT dangerous to remove a nipple and leave the glandular tissue of the breast without any duct opening to the exterior for drainage of secretions? What will happen if pregnancy and lactation occur later? Will stasis in the ducts and acini produce chronic inflammation, cysts or cancer? Obstruction of the lactiferous ducts in the nipple produced by tying them off or burning them has been used in mice and rats to produce carcinoma experimentally. On the other hand, most textbooks, in discussing lesions of the nipple, advise simple removal of that structure, but none of them state whether there is any danger regarding inflammation, galactocele or carcinoma developing later in the breast. EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS An evaluation of the effect of one type of chronic irritation—milk stagnation—on the incidence of mammary carcinoma has been attempted experimentally in mice. Bagg¹ ligated the mammary ducts on one side in pregnant