BACKGROUND: Acute mastitis is a common disease occurring in postpartum lactating women. This study aimed to identify the high-risk factors for suppurative mastitis (SM) in women who were breastfeeding.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 262 non-SM patients and 63 SM patients admitted to the Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery of Liaocheng People’s Hospital were retrospectively enrolled in this study. The high-risk factors for SM during lactation were determined by assessing admission time after acute mastitis, galactostasis, primipara or pluripara, nipple injuries, antibiotic treatment course, and diabetes.

RESULTS: The incidence of SM in patients with admission time greater than 72 h after occurrence of acute mastitis was significantly higher than that in patients whose admission time was less than 72 h (p<0.0001). Patients with galactostasis were more prone to develop SM compared to patients without galactostasis (p<0.0001), and the incidence of SM in primiparous patients was significantly higher than that in pluriparous patients (p=0.003). The incidence rate of SM was significantly higher in patients with diabetes than in patients without diabetes (p=0.002). Patients with nipple injuries were more prone to suffer from SM relative to the patients without nipple injuries (p<0.0001). However, there was no significant difference in the incidence of SM according to the antibiotic treatment course (p=0.134).

CONCLUSIONS: SM during lactation was closely associated with admission time after the occurrence of acute mastitis, galactostasis, primipara, diabetes, and nipple injuries.

Keywords: Breast Feeding, mastitis