Benign Breast Calcifications

Abstract

Benign calcifications in the breast have been observed following breast biopsy, trauma, abscess, augmentation with prosthetic devices, reduction mammoplasty and mastopexy, and augmentation with autogenous fat grafts. These calcifications are generally thought to follow fat necrosis. However, fat necrosis in the breast is more likely to result in calcifications than similar necrosis elsewhere in the body. The author offers a theory that trauma, whether accidental or surgical, can cause not only fat necrosis, but also glandular damage or necrosis that releases an unknown mammary factor (tentatively called Factor MX) that promotes calcium concentration and reacts with the fatty acids to form calcifications.

The literature on breast calcifications following surgery is reviewed, and four case reports are presented. The author makes the point that the use of fat injection techniques for breast augmentation has not been proved to be any more likely to result in eventual breast calcifications than are numerous other surgical procedures. Therefore, criticism of this technique based on the potential for unnecessary biopsies at a later date is unwarranted.

Benign calcifications have been observed following breast biopsy, trauma, abscess, augmentation using prosthetic devices, reduction mammoplasty, mastopexy, and augmentation with autogenous fat graft. These calcifications are usually thought to follow fat necrosis. We present a summary of the literature and four case reports of benign breast calcifications, three involving patients who developed calcifications following augmentation with silicone prosthetic devices and the fourth, a patient who developed a calcification 4 years after an augmentation using autogenous fat.