Background and purpose: Mastitis or infection of breast tissue is a common condition in women, especially in childbearing age and is treated on outpatient basis. Sometimes, in the evaluation of mastitis, particularly in chronic mastitis, a physician detect rare forms such as granulomatous mastitis and malignancies. The aim of this study was to evaluate some clinical characteristics of patients who were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of mastitis.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, data was obtained from the records of 46 females admitted in Qaemshahr Razi Hospital. The patients were initially diagnosed with mastitis and hospitalized from 2010-2015. Risk factors, patients’ history, physical examination, laboratory data, ultrasound and mammogram results, methods of diagnosis, treatments, pathology results, and final diagnosis were recorded in a checklist.

Results: In this investigation 8 patients (18%) were in post monoposal period and, 38 (82%) were premonoposal. The mean age of patients was 33.18±7.08 years old. Eight patients had recurrent mastitis and 4 had a history of previous history of breast surgery. The final diagnosis in six patients (13%) was granulomatous mastitis who all had recurrent mastitis. Meanwhile two patients were diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.

Conclusion: Mastitis can be caused by infection, granulomatous, and even malignancy. In case of recurrence, biopsy and histopathology are required to make final diagnosis.