Trends and Reasons of Referral of Benign Breast Disease Patients in a Tertiary Hospital in India

Abstract

Many women with benign breast disease seek consultations at tertiary referral centres in our country. This study aimed to investigate the clinicopathologic profile and the reasons of referral of such patients to a tertiary care hospital. This study (January 2020–February 2022) enrolled 245 women aged ≥ 18 years attending our outpatient clinic with a referral diagnosis of benign breast disease prospectively. During the first visit, each woman was given a questionnaire which consisted of 21 questions, including (1) general questions regarding patients’ profiles, (2) questions specific to benign breast disease, and (3) previous medical consultations and reasons for visiting our centre. The mean age of patients was 34.5 years, and 75.5% were premenopausal. The majority (45.3%) belonged to rural areas. Mastalgia was the most common presenting symptom (51.4%). Forty-five percent of patients had visited a public hospital earlier, and 42.4% consulted > 1 doctor before visiting our centre. Most had ≥ 1 investigation performed, including breast ultrasonography (76.3%) and mammography (22.9%). Ninety percent had received some form of medication. The dominant reasons for visits to our centre were the fear of malignancy (46.5%) or dissatisfaction (45.7%) with counselling regarding breast cancer risk. But only 43% accepted that they would have been satisfied if they were emphatically told that they did not have an increased risk of breast cancer. Counselling of benign breast disease patients needs to be centred around alleviating fear of malignancy. More insight among treating physicians is needed to address the patient’s concerns.