Breast pain or mastalgia is the common symptom in the breast. The two most common concerns of patients presenting with mastalgia are: the fear that breast pain is a symptom of breast cancer and the presence of severe pain that affects a woman's quality of life. Breast pain requires thorough assessment and should be investigated in the same manner as any other breast symptom. We conducted a systematic review of treatment for breast pain. We searched various reviews, randomized controlled trial, and observational studies over Pubmed and Medline via internet. Searches were carried out on MEDLINE

Most breast abscesses develops as a complication of lactational mastitis. The incidence of breast abscess ranges from 0.4 to 11 % of all lactating mothers. The traditional management of breast abscesses involves incision and drainage of pus along with antistaphylococcal antibiotics, but this is associated with prolonged healing time, regular dressings, difficulty in breast feeding, and the possibility of milk fistula with unsatisfactory cosmetic outcome. It has recently been reported that breast abscesses can be treated by repeated needle aspirations and suction drainage. The predominance of Staphylococcus aureus allows a rational choice of antibiotic without having to wait for the results of bacteriological culture. Many antibiotics are secreted in milk, but penicillin, cephalosporins, and erythromycin, however, are considered safe. Where an abscess has formed, aspiration of the pus, preferably under ultrasound control, has now supplanted open surgery as the first line of treatment.

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To compare the healing of chronic wounds with honey dressing vs. Povidone iodine dressing in adult subjects with chronic wounds of ≥6 weeks of duration, attending wound care clinic in Surgical Out Patient

Vascular leiomyosarcomas are rare tumors, arising most frequently from inferior vena cava (IVC). They are mostly seen in sixth decade, with a female predominance. Their diagnosis is often challenging, as patients may present with non-specific complaints such as dyspnea, malaise, weight loss, abdominal pain, or back pain, preceding the diagnosis by several years. Leiomyosarcoma of the IVC most frequently occurs in the middle segment. The final diagnosis can be made by an ultrasound or computed tomography guided biopsy. Because of limited experience with this disease, optimal management of IVC leiomyosarcoma is unknown. Curative surgical resection remains the current treatment of choice for primary leiomyosarcoma of IVC. Neoadjuvant therapy may be given to downsize the tumor and increase resectability rates. Nonetheless, when complete resection is not possible, debulking combined with radiation therapy still provides good palliation. We, hereby, report four cases of this rare entity with emphasis on management.

Fibroadenoma is a common cause of breast lump in young girls. Nearly 10-15 % of lesions regress spontaneously over the period of 6 to 60 months. The aim of study was to investigate the role of Centchroman in regression of fibroadenoma in comparison to natural observation and to study the association of hormonal receptors with degree of regression. The study was carried out at the outpatient clinic of Department of Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, from November 2004 to November 2007. Patients aged ≤30 years with fibroadenoma were included. Patients with fibroadenoma equal to or larger than 5 cm and with polycystic ovarian disease were excluded. Patients were randomized in two groups. Patients in active therapy arm were prescribed Centchroman 30 mg daily for 12 weeks, and another group was observed without any intervention (control group). Patients were followed at weeks 4, 8, 12, and 24 to assess response to therapy. Twenty-two (31.88 %) fibroadenomas in Centchroman arm disappeared completely as compared to four (7.69 %) in control arm over a period of 6 months.There was a decrease in the volume of fibroadenoma in ten (19.23 %) patients in control arm and 36 (52.17 %) patients in Centchroman arm. Centchroman therapy allowed 31 % fibroadenoma to regress completely with scanty menses or amenorrhea as the only side effect.

Sentinel node biopsy helps in assessing the involvement of axillary lymph node without the morbidity of full axillary lymph node dissection, namely arm and shoulder pain, paraesthesia and lymphoedema. The various methods described in the literature identify the sentinel lymph nodes in approximately 96 % of cases and associated with a false negativity rate of 5 to 10 %. A false negative sentinel node is defined as the proportion of cases in whom sentinel node biopsy is reported as negative, but the rest of axillary lymph node(s) harbours cancer cells. The possible causes of a false negative sentinel lymph node may be because of blocked lymphatics either by cancer cells or following fibrosis of previous surgery/radiotherapy, and an alternative pathway opens draining the blue dye or isotope to another uninvolved node. The other reasons may be two lymphatic pathways for a tumour area, the one opening to a superficial node and the other in deep nodes. Sometimes, lymphatics do not relay into a node but traverse it going to a higher node. In some patients, the microscopic focus of metastasis inside a lymph node is so small-micrometastasis (i.e. between 0.2 and 2 mm) or isolated tumour cells (i.e. less than 0.2 mm) that is missed by the pathologist. The purpose of this review is to clear some fears lurking in the mind of most surgeons about the false negative sentinel lymph node (FNSLN).

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