OVERVIEW
This page is dedicated to organizing various examples of standardized exam questions whose answer is breast abscess. While this may seem a odd practice, it is useful to see multiple examples of how breast abscess will be characterized on standardized exams (namely the boards and the shelf exams). This page is not meant to be used as a tradition question bank (as all of the answers will be the same), however seeing the classic “test” characterization for a disease is quite valuable.
QUESTION EXAMPLES
Question # 1
Six weeks after a vaginal delivery at term, a 34 year old woman (G1P1) comes to the emergency department due to right breast pain and swelling. She has been breastfeeding and bottle feeding her newborn, and fist began to notice renders on her right breast a week ago. This has since worsened. She takes ibuprofen and applies icepacks to the area, but this has provided little relief from the pain. When she was 19, she was diagnosed with fibrocystic breast disease. An exam shows a patch of erythema spreading from he areola to the lateral edge of the breast. There is also a 4 cm area of fluctuance at the lateral border of the breast. What is the most likely diagnosis?
Explanation: erythema + fluctuance = breast abscess
Page Updated: 10.15.2016