A 42-year-old woman presents with a swollen, painful, erythematous left breast which does not respond to a 10-day course of oxacillin. Ultrasound reveals no abscess. The next step in management should be:
Correct Answer: Biopsy the skin and parenchyma of the breast
Description: The patient should have a biopsy of the skin and breast tissues. The most likely diagnosis is inflammatory breast cancer. The skin should be included in order to assess for invasion of the dermal lymphatics. Dermal lymphatic invasion is not mandatory for the diagnosis of inflammatory breast cancer. Incision and drainage is not indicated as no abscess was seen on ultrasound. This is not likely to be caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus; therefore a course of vancomycin would not be indicated. The other answers are not appropriate even if the problem was an infection.
Category:
Surgery
Get More
Subject Mock Tests
Practice with over 200,000 questions from various medical subjects and improve your knowledge.
Attempt a mock test nowMock Exam
Take an exam with 100 random questions selected from all subjects to test your knowledge.
Coming SoonGet More
Subject Mock Tests
Try practicing mock tests with over 200,000 questions from various medical subjects.
Attempt a mock test now