How big a breast nodule is needed for surgery

Nowadays, more and more patients have breast nodules. Breast nodules can cause changes in our menstrual cycle. The estrogen in the body continues to rise, and may even cause the breast nodules to continue to grow and proliferate. The appearance of breast nodules is closely related to emotional changes and physical changes. When it reaches a certain level, surgical treatment is required.

What are breast nodules? How should it be treated?

Breast nodules, which are what we call breast disease. The ductal epithelium of the mammary gland changes with the menstrual cycle. When estrogen levels increase, it stimulates epithelial cell proliferation. Once the hormone level drops, the proliferating cells will regress and recover. If there is a disorder in the hormone levels in the body or problems with the ductal epithelium, it will cause continued proliferation without a recovery process, which will form nodules over time. When breast nodules appear, women will experience intermittent breast pain, which may be related to emotions and stress. The pain may worsen before menstruation and be relieved after menstruation. Palpation of the breast may reveal a lump, some of which may be tender. These nodules are usually detected by ultrasound.

So, how should we deal with breast nodules? Usually the nodules are not very large. If they are only a few millimeters, especially cystic nodules, follow-up is sufficient, with an ultrasound examination every six months to observe whether the nodules have grown larger. If the pain symptoms are more obvious, you can take some Chinese patent medicine for the treatment of breast hyperplasia, which can promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, soothe the liver and regulate qi, and relieve the pain symptoms. Some nodules can be softened or even reduced in size through drug treatment. If the nodule is larger than 1 cm, surgical resection is recommended, especially in patients over 40 years old. The reason is that breast nodules have the possibility of becoming malignant, especially when affected by adverse external stimuli, they are more likely to change. So, how to perform surgery on nodules of 1 cm or even a few millimeters? Don't worry, this problem can be easily solved with minimally invasive surgery. Minimally invasive surgery uses ultrasound to locate the nodule, which is more targeted and less likely to damage the surrounding normal glandular tissue. An experienced surgeon usually only needs five minutes to remove a nodule of about 1 cm, and this can be done under local anesthesia. The breast surgery department of our Oriental Hospital performs hundreds of such minimally invasive surgeries on breast nodules every year, and has achieved good results, solving practical problems for patients. Of course, some of them are pathologically diagnosed as malignant after surgery, in which case they need to be further resected and treated as breast cancer.

Don’t be nervous if you have breast nodules. Please see a specialist. Most patients do not need surgical intervention and only need follow-up.