Can breast syphilis be fatal for a woman? Chronic Inflammatory Diseases of the Breast Syphilis of the Breast

Date: 01.07.2020

In medical practice, a disease such as breast syphilis is very rare. However, still isolated cases with this disease are recorded.

Syphilis of the breast is an extremely dangerous disease. Since the developing inflammatory process in the mammary gland can go to other organs and vital systems of the body.

The detection of breast syphilis carries a decrease in the quality of life for a woman in the absence of proper treatment. In addition, syphilis can become a fatal disease if treatment is not taken in a timely manner.

Syphilis of the breast is an infectious disease caused by pale treponema. When it enters the breast, this infectious pathogen multiplies very quickly. In this case, the patient's condition is rapidly deteriorating.

Ways of infection with syphilis

Syphilis of the mammary glands can proceed in a latent form for a rather long period. That is, syphilis infections proceed without pronounced symptoms. The danger of this disease is that it is diagnosed at late, advanced stages.

The causative agent of syphilis can first affect one mammary gland, and then pass to the other. Therefore, both unilateral and bilateral (cover both mammary glands).

Syphilis is considered a very dangerous disease, since it is contagious at absolutely all stages. The greatest danger to the people around the patient, syphilis bears when it is on the skin.

Men are not susceptible to breast syphilis, but treponema pallidum, if infected, can affect other organs in them. The microbe-causative agent of syphilis has a systemic effect on the body as a whole, so one cannot think that if the male sex is not susceptible to breast syphilis, then treponema does not pose any danger to them.

Syphilis can be transmitted in these main ways. It:

Sexual transmission
From mother to child at birth
Infection

Pale treponema has the ability to survive outside the human body for about 4 days.

Like other viral diseases, syphilis is highly contagious. Therefore, it is imperative for healthy people to avoid personal contact with an infected patient.

Every person must beware of direct and indirect ways of contracting syphilis. It is very difficult to recover from this disease. In addition, absolutely all patients with syphilis cannot lead a fulfilling life. Their quality of life is severely limited and deteriorating.

What are the symptoms of breast syphilis

As already noted at the initial incubation period, the presence of treponema in the mammary glands is not accompanied by any external manifestations. The incubation period can last from one to several months.

Chronic inflammatory diseases of the mammary gland are usually classified as breast mastitis, lactostasis, breast tuberculosis, breast syphilis, breast oleogranuloma and other diseases.

This type of tuberculosis is considered a secondary disease. Mycobacterium tuberculosis pass through the milk ducts (primary infection occurs), as well as through the lymphatic pathways from tuberculous foci in the mediastinum, lung, axillary lymph nodes. In the case of acute miliary tuberculosis, hematogenous infection is possible. Such forms of breast tuberculosis differ:

knotty
ulcerative,
sclerotic;
fistulous.

How does the disease manifest

For tuberculosis of the mammary gland, it is characteristic:

retraction of the nipple;
the appearance of a dense infiltrate;
infiltration - without clear contours;
the lymph nodes are enlarged.

How is the disease diagnosed

The diagnosis is established on the basis of anamnesis and the results of histological examination of the removed sector of the breast or punctate.

How is the disease treated

Excision of the infiltrate is performed, as well as specific anti-tuberculosis therapy.

Syphilis of the mammary glands

This disease is rare. In the case of a primary lesion in the areola, the nipple forms a hard chancre, which is a delimited ulcer with compaction at the base. Less painful dense lymph nodes appear in the axillary fossa. Secondary syphilis is characterized by papules and skin rashes. For tertiary syphilis, a single gum is characteristic. Initially, a dense nodule appears in the thickness of the mammary gland, in which, as it increases, the skin is infiltrated, an ulcer is formed that resembles a cancerous decaying tumor or tuberculosis. The diagnosis can be clarified by conducting a cytological examination of prints from the edges of the ulcer, as well as the Wasserman reaction. They are treated with anti-syphilitic methods.

The disease is also rare; it is secondary and primary. In primary actinomycosis, the pathogen enters the milk ducts or through the skin into the mammary gland. In the secondary form of the disease - by the lymphogenous pathway from the pleura, ribs, and lung affected by actinomycosis. The disease is characterized by:

at the onset of the disease, small granulomas (nodules) and abscesses appear at the site of the introduction of actinomycetes;
nodules merge into dense infiltrates;
nodules can soften in places.
long-term non-healing fistulas - after opening of abscesses.

Diagnose the disease on the basis of the history, as well as the detection of the accumulation of actinomycetes in the discharge from the fistulas. The disease is treated by resection of the affected area of the breast. Also, large doses of penicillin, actinolysates are prescribed, immunotherapy, vitamin therapy are carried out.

Syphilis of the mammary glands is an infectious, specific, rare sexually transmitted disease that belongs to the group of sexually transmitted diseases. The disease is long-term and affects the body systemically. Syphilis is caused by a pale spirochete (treponema), it manifests itself in three stages of damage to the mammary glands. Through the smallest microcracks on the lining of the mammary gland, the pathogen easily penetrates, multiplies and disperses throughout the body. At any stage of the disease, the patient is contagious, especially if there are skin manifestations. Men do not get this type of syphilis.

Causes of breast syphilis

The main method of infection with breast syphilis is sexual contact with an infected person, you can also get infected from a child infected with syphilis while breastfeeding. Putting on someone else's unwashed clothes or using personal hygiene items, a woman increases the risk of infection several times. After all, a pale spirochete in a humid warm environment remains viable for another 4 days, even if it is outside the human body, therefore, if the skin on the mammary gland is damaged, the likelihood of infection is quite high.

Symptoms of breast syphilis

At each stage of development, syphilis is characterized by different manifestations. During the incubation period, which lasts about a month, the disease behaves latently. At the initial stage, in the place where the microorganism was introduced, usually it is the nipple-areola complex, redness appears, then the formation of a hard chancre in the form of ulcerative erosion. This is considered a clinical symptom of the first stage of syphilis. The chancre has a rounded, well-defined shape, a shiny red-cyanotic bottom and a painless dense infiltrate. Its dimensions can vary from 2mm to 5 cm, there can be as many ulcerations as there were wounds on the mammary gland. Little by little, the lymph nodes increase, especially those close to the focus of infection. Although they are enlarged, they are painless, ulcers heal without treatment, the disease subsides, but does not go away.

In the second stage of syphilis, which lasts from 2 to 5 years, symptoms of a cold or flu appear: often headaches, malaise, fever, patients lose weight, appetite worsens.

This stage is characterized by cyclical pink polymorphic rashes (papules, roseola, pustules) on the chest and throughout the body, skin changes, scaly patches or ulceration, hair may fall out all over the body. The nervous system and internal organs are affected. At this stage, the damage to the epidermis is highly contagious.

A few years after the onset of the disease, the third, slightly infectious stage of syphilis occurs, during which disfigurement, damage to the spinal cord and brain occurs, severe mental illness, paralysis, complete blindness, multiple organ failure may follow. The mammary gland itself in the tertiary stage is affected in a gummy form or resembling chronic mastitis, like diffuse infiltration of the gland. Gumma appears usually near the nipple of the mammary gland and is felt as a dense, slightly painful nodule, the size of a walnut. If purulent melting of gum occurs, it breaks through and the formation of a painless syphilitic ulcer is obtained, which resembles a lesion in tuberculosis or breast cancer. The tertiary stage of breast syphilis occurs if not treated for several years after infection, it is the most severe and irreversible stage, leading the patient to disfigurement and disability.

Diagnosis of breast syphilis

To make an accurate diagnosis, it is necessary to examine a mammologist and a venereologist, take anamnesis and the results of laboratory tests. First of all, a serological study of the presence of syphilis in the blood is carried out. If there are lesions on the skin of the mammary gland in the form of erosive ulcers, abscesses, vesicles, a microscopic examination of specific elements is performed to identify the pathogen and exclude tuberculosis or actinomycosis of the breast. Smear-imprint and biopsy from the edge of the ulcer provide a cytological and histological conclusion in order to exclude breast cancer. Research using ultrasound, MRI and mammography will be nonspecific for breast syphilis.

Breast syphilis treatment

Modern medicine successfully treats syphilis, including on the mammary gland. But the main thing is to consult a doctor on time, since the advanced stage of the disease will not allow a woman to remain completely healthy, since the processes of damage are irreversible. In addition to taking the prescribed drugs, a woman will have to listen to the doctor's recommendations: to lead a certain lifestyle, to exclude sexual intercourse for a while, drinking alcohol, breastfeeding a child. It is necessary to conduct a survey of sexual partners and family members. A woman is considered fully recovered if, within five years after treatment, tests for the presence of the treponema pathogen in the body were negative.

Syphilis of the mammary glands is a curable disease, but the duration of therapy depends on the stage. Complex treatment is carried out in a course, the appointment of a dermatovenerologist is strictly individual, medical supervision and clinical and serological tests are required until complete recovery. For the treatment of breast syphilis, antibiotics of the penicillin group, erythromycin, tetracyclines, cephalosporins are prescribed. In addition, anti-syphilitic drugs with iodine and bismuth, biogenic stimulants, and immunomodulators are used.

Prevention and prognosis for breast syphilis

For preventive purposes, you cannot use shared bath accessories, use someone else's clothes without washing them first, and prevent accidental sexual intercourse. If there is a need to breastfeed someone else's baby, it is better not to breastfeed, but to express the milk needed for feeding into a bottle. In the event that the mother herself undergoes treatment, is it possible to breastfeed the baby - this question is considered very relevant. Usually, the child is isolated from the mother until the baby confirms the mother's illness. However, this should not be done, since treponema has already been transmitted to the child through the placental bloodstream, which means that he has already become infected from the mother and needs treatment. Therefore, one should not deprive him of the additional immunity that the baby receives through the mother's milk.

After contact with a sick syphilis, preventive treatment and treatment with bactericidal agents of areas of possible infection, including the mammary gland, is mandatory.

The prognosis for the treatment of breast syphilis will be favorable, provided timely and correct treatment. Within 5 years after the therapy, patients are registered at the dispensary, regularly undergo serological diagnostics and are considered cured completely if there are no signs of the disease for a long time.

- a specific infectious disease caused by pallidum spirochete, manifested by primary, secondary and / or tertiary lesions of the mammary glands. Symptoms of breast syphilis depend on the period of the disease and may include a variety of skin manifestations (syphilis), specific lymphadenitis, a violation of the general condition, and damage to internal organs. The diagnosis is confirmed by the results of serological reactions and cytological examination of smears from the edges of the ulcer. The main thing in the treatment of breast syphilis is adequate antibiotic therapy.

Syphilis of the breast is a rare specific inflammatory disease with a long course and systemic damage to the body. The causative agent of syphilis - pale spirochete (treponema) easily penetrates through the existing minor damage to the skin of the mammary gland, multiplies and spreads throughout the body. A patient with syphilis is contagious at any time of the disease, especially in the presence of skin manifestations. Syphilis of the breast, like other diseases diagnosed and treated by mammology, concerns mainly female patients.

Causes of breast syphilis

Syphilis of the mammary gland can be contracted from a patient through direct contact (from a sexual partner, when feeding a sick child), by household means (through wet hygiene items: a washcloth, a towel; clothes).

In the wet discharge of the patient, the pale spirochete can remain viable for up to 4 days and in the presence of microtraumas, small wounds, cracks in the skin of the mammary gland (especially in the area of the nipple and areola), the likelihood of infection with syphilis is quite high.

Symptoms of breast syphilis

The manifestations of breast syphilis differ depending on the stage of the disease. During the incubation period (about a month), breast syphilis proceeds without any clinical signs of infection. At the primary stage of breast syphilis, redness develops at the site of the introduction of microorganisms (usually in the area of the breast nipple or areola) with the formation of a hard chancre - a round, well-defined ulcerative erosion with a shiny bluish-red bottom and a dense painless infiltrate. The size of the hard chancre can range from 2-3 mm to 4-5 cm, with multiple lesions of the skin of the mammary gland - there may be several ulcers.

A painless enlargement and induration of the axillary lymph nodes is gradually observed, with the further development of specific polyadenitis. Chancre of the mammary gland sometimes heals before signs of secondary syphilis develop. At the end of the primary stage of breast syphilis, lasting 6-8 weeks, general malaise may occur.

The secondary stage of breast syphilis lasting from 2 to 5 years is manifested by symptoms resembling a cold or flu with generalized painless lymphadenitis and cyclically appearing polymorphic rashes (roseola, papules, pustules) in the breast area and throughout the body. There is a loss of skin pigmentation (leukoderma), baldness, decreased appetite and weight loss, damage to the nervous system and internal organs.

Less often, the mammary gland is affected by syphilis in the tertiary stage, which can proceed in gummy form or in the form of diffuse infiltration of the gland, reminiscent of chronic mastitis. The gum of the mammary gland usually occurs near the nipple and is found in the thickness of the gland as a dense, well-limited, slightly painful node the size of a walnut. With purulent fusion of gum and its breakthrough, a syphilitic ulcer is formed, reminiscent of a lesion in breast cancer or tuberculosis, which, however, is not accompanied by pain. Tertiary syphilis of the mammary gland is not very contagious, but is characterized by irreversible damage to internal organs, spinal cord and brain, severe mental disorders, paralysis, and blindness. Tertiary syphilis of the breast occurs in the absence of treatment several years after infection, is the most severe stage of the disease, leading to disfigurement and disability of the patient.

Diagnosis of breast syphilis

When diagnosing breast syphilis, it is necessary to examine the patient by a mammologist and a venereologist, take a detailed history to detect specific symptoms of the disease, and conduct laboratory tests.

Serological diagnostics of syphilis in plasma and serum is performed: nonspecific (RPR test, RW - Wasserman reaction) and specific (RIF, RPHA, RIBT). In the presence of skin manifestations in the area of the mammary gland (erosions, ulcers, abscesses, vesicles), microscopy of specific elements for pale treponema is performed to identify the causative agent and differential diagnosis of syphilis, tuberculosis or actinomycosis of the breast. The collection of smears-prints and biopsy from the edges of the ulcer allows you to obtain a cytological and histological conclusion in order to exclude breast cancer.

Mammography, ultrasound and MRI of the mammary glands in syphilis are not specific.

Treatment and prognosis of breast syphilis

Syphilis of the breast is a curable disease, the duration of therapy for which is determined by the stage of syphilitic lesion. Complex course treatment of breast syphilis is prescribed by a dermatovenerologist individually, carried out on an outpatient basis or in a hospital with obligatory medical and clinical-serological control.

In the treatment of breast syphilis, antibiotics of the penicillin group (benzylpenicillin and its analogues), erythromycin, cephalosporins, tetracyclines are used. Additionally, anti-syphilitic drugs containing iodine and bismuth, immunomodulators, biogenic stimulants are prescribed.

After contact with a patient with syphilis, during the first 2 hours, preventive treatment is necessary with the treatment of places of possible infection (including the mammary gland) with bactericidal agents. During the treatment of breast syphilis, it is necessary to exclude sex life, alcohol, and examine the sexual partners and family members.

With correct and timely therapy, the prognosis for the treatment of breast syphilis is favorable. Patients are subject to dispensary observation with a serological diagnosis and, in the absence of signs of the disease for five years, are considered cured completely.

And we also have

Causes of breast syphilis

Symptoms of breast syphilis

Diagnosis of breast syphilis

Mammography, ultrasound and MRI of the mammary glands in syphilis are not specific.