Abstract
Mondor's disease is a relatively rare benign disease which is characterized by thrombophlebitis of the subcutaneous vein in anterior chest wall. It involves a painful subcutaneous cord caused by breast surgery, trauma, and muscular overactivity. We experienced 19 cases of Mondor's disease during the last 16 years.
All patients were women and the ages ranged from 25 to 69 years (mean: 46.8) From an anatomic point of view, subcutaneous cords were found mainly in the thoracoepigastric vein and all cases had some ipsilateral disease. The identified potential etiologies were unknown causes in eight cases, postoperative breast biopsy in five cases, benign breast tumor in three cases and breast cancer in two cases. All cases of the breast cancer were associated with non-palpable tumor, which accounted for about 10% of all 19 cases. Common symptoms included sudden appearance of painful subcutaneous cords or furrows in the skin which run vertically or transversely. The symptoms spontaneously relieved without any treatment about one or two months after the onset of the symptoms except two cases associated with breast cancer.
In patients presenting with Mondor's disease, mammography and ultrasonography should be conducted because of the possibility of underlying breast cancer.
