Gynecomastia

Gynecomastia, derived from the Greek words: gyne, woman, and mastos, breast, has been a recognized entity since the days of Aristotle,1who reported that he had examined several such anomalies. The surgical removal for tumefaction of the breast was first advised by Paulus Aegineta2in 1556. He was followed by such men as Haly Abbas3and Abul-Casimir el Zahrawi.4In 1880, Olphan5wrote an interesting article on gynecomastia. Schuchardt,6in 1884-1885, reviewed the literature for new tissue formation in the male breast and from his findings published three papers. Two of these dealt with pathologic conditions, while the third described 40 cases as examples of true gynecomastia. Gruber,7in 1886, concluded that true gynecomastia was a physiologic phenomenon with all the characteristics of the female organ. Schuchardt,6however, included mastitis in his classification. Gruber,7Langer,8Luschka9and Momberger10