Cystic tumours of the breast / by Thomas Bryant.

  • Bryant, Thomas, 1828-1914.
Date:
[1886]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cystic tumours of the breast / by Thomas Bryant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tion no such symptom will^ however, be found, but this fact need not diminish the value of the symptom for diagnostic purposes when it is present. Others of the cysts have a connective-tissue origin.’^ That is they originate outside the ducts of the gland or the gland r structure and are formed by the effusion of fluid into the con- nective tissue which binds the lobes and lobules of the gland together. Such cases are usually single but may be multiple. They are commonly of slow formation and as a result have thick walls. They are always smooth on their inner surface, and as .a rule contain serous fluid. At times the fluid is, however, mucoid or dark. When the cyst appears in the breast of a tiiin woman its tense globular outline, unassociated with any of the symptoms which are recognised as characterising the I existence of a cancerous or other tumour, should suggest its nature as well as treatment, for the puncture of the swelling with a fine aspirating needle will prove much. When the cyst shows itself in the breast of a fat subject the diagnosis must be difficult, but its true nature should ever be suspected, even when all other symptoms of more solid growths have by the lapse of time failed to manifest them- selves. The more breast tissue there is to surround a cyst or cystic tumour the greater the difficulty of diagnosis. The looser the tumour has existed without the manifestation of the well-recognised symptoms of cancer or other growth the stronger the probability of its being cystic. In all doubtful cases, however, the fine exploring needle of an aspirating syringe will avail much for diagnostic purposes. In but few of these cases can the surgeon without exploration diagnose be- tween the simple cyst and the cyst with proliferating intracystic growth. Simple cysts of the breast exist and in many cases never develop into anything else or become the seat of solid growth. With the majority of cystic tumours this, however, is not the case, for what may seem to be the most simple or innocuous cyst may be expected, if not cured, to become the seat ot some proliferating intracystic growth, which will be adenoma- tous, sarcomatous, or carcinomatous, according to the tendency of the tissue to form and of the individual to develop either special variety. The mere presence of a cyst in the mammary gland must be