Abstract

Most breast pathologies are benign. Benign breast diseases (BBD) constitute a spectrum of lesions ranging from developmental abnormalities, inflammatory lesions, epithelial and stromal proliferations to various neoplasms. Some of the women with BBD, especially those with proliferative lesions have been reported to be at increased risk for development of subsequent breast cancer. This is a retrospective analysis of all histopathologically diagnosed benign breast diseases in archival records of the department of Histopathology, Federal Medical Centre, Makurdi. The study period is January, 1997 to December, 2006. Two hundred and eleven cases of BBD (67%) were histologically diagnosed out of 315 breast biopsies within the study period, and fibroadenoma 95(45%), was the most frequent diagnosis followed by fibrocystic changes which constituted 67(31.8%). The age of the patients ranged from 14 to 63 years with the mean age of 32.2 ± 9.4 years. The most recurring presenting complaint was painless breast lump.

Key words: Benign breast diseases, histopathology, neoplasm, proliferative, inflammatory.