PATIENT: A 37-year-old woman presented with Mondor's thrombophlebitis 13 years after augmentation mammaplasty with subpectoral saline implants. She presented complaining of 1 week of "band-like" cords and pain involving the thoracoepigastric and lateral thoracic vessels. She was evaluated and ruled out for other etiologies of her breast symptoms. BACKGROUND: Mondor's disease is a benign and self-limiting disease characterized by thrombophlebitis of the subcutaneous veins of the chest and abdominal wall. The inflammation causes painful superficial cords manifesting as skin retraction. Mondor's disease has been described in aesthetic breast surgery literature, but most cases occur within the first few postoperative weeks. CONCLUSIONS: Mondor's disease may be idiopathic, iatrogenic, or a manifestation of underlying pathology such as breast cancer. The diagnosis of iatrogenic Mondor's disease can be made with high clinical certainty when following aesthetic breast surgery in the early postoperative period. However, in late presentations that are not immediately related to surgery, Mondor's disease remains a diagnosis of exclusion, and other underlying pathologic etiologies must be ruled out.
PATIENT: A 37-year-old woman presented with Mondor's thrombophlebitis 13 years after augmentation mammaplasty with subpectoral saline implants. She presented complaining of 1 week of "band-like" cords and pain involving the thoracoepigastric and lateral thoracic vessels. She was evaluated and ruled out for other etiologies of her breast symptoms. BACKGROUND:Mondor's disease is a benign and self-limiting disease characterized by thrombophlebitis of the subcutaneous veins of the chest and abdominal wall. The inflammation causes painful superficial cords manifesting as skin retraction. Mondor's disease has been described in aesthetic breast surgery literature, but most cases occur within the first few postoperative weeks. CONCLUSIONS:Mondor's disease may be idiopathic, iatrogenic, or a manifestation of underlying pathology such as breast cancer. The diagnosis of iatrogenic Mondor's disease can be made with high clinical certainty when following aesthetic breast surgery in the early postoperative period. However, in late presentations that are not immediately related to surgery, Mondor's disease remains a diagnosis of exclusion, and other underlying pathologic etiologies must be ruled out.