Summary: Inflammatory breast disorders are pretty uncommon. They present with a red, swollen, painful breast. So does inflammatory breast carcinoma, though - so any non-lactating female with this presentation should be carefully evaluated. Benign inflammatory disorders include: Acute mastitis (almost always occurs during the first month of breastfeeding) Periductal mastitis (usually occurs in smokers; no association with lactation) Mammary duct ectasia (occurs in multiparous women in 60s-70s; presents with thick white nipple discharge) Fat necrosis (usually follows breast trauma or prior surgery) Lymphocytic mastopathy (single or multiple hard masses; most common in patients with type I diabetes or autoimmune thyroid disease) Granulomatous mastitis (seen in systemic granulomatous disease like sarcoidosis; in granulomatous infections like fungal infections; and adjacent to foreign objects like nipple piercings) Read more: Robbins 9e , page 1046.
