Failure of bromocriptine therapy to control juvenile mammary hypertrophy.

Rapid massive breast hypertrophy occasionally occurs at the time of puberty or during pregnancy, with breast size eventually becoming burdensome or incapacitating to the patient. Pregnancy-related breast hypertrophy is often arrested or reversed by reducing serum prolactin levels with bromocriptine therapy. Unfortunately, breast enlargement in our 12-year-old patient with massive juvenile mammary hypertrophy was unaffected by bromocriptine therapy despite a reduction of her prolactin to normal levels. Two reduction mammaplasties followed by subcutaneous mastectomy were required to control breast hypertrophy. Breast-tissue hypersensitivity to prolactin appears to be a characteristic of pregnancy-related gigantomastia. Our pubertal patient with juvenile mammary hypertrophy failed to respond to bromocriptine therapy, so the aetiology of this syndrome may involve breast-tissue hypersensitivity to hormones other than prolactin. Copyright 2001 The British Association of Plastic Surgeons.