What causes a lump on the mid shoulder blade?
Patient: I am 30 years old, 5'5" and 138 lbs. I'm very healthy and active. No known skin problems in my family tree but I've always had oily skin. I tan very easily but generally put sunscreen on to prevent sun burns. Lately, I have noticed a bump on my back around my mid-shoulder blade. It's not red, itchy, or inflamed. If I squeeze the area a continuous line of thick white stuff (not smelly) comes out. I keep squeezing and squeezing and it keeps coming and coming. I generally relieve this area until the bump is no longer noticeable but then It fills up over time (months I would say) and the same process begins. Any explanations and should I worry? Doctor: Its is a sebaceous cyst. Usually in people with oily skin sebum forming glands in the skin produces lots of sebum which sometimes gets trapped and forms a sebaceous cyst. It is just below the skin and contains white to greyish cheese material. Treatment is excision of the cyst. Next time, don't squeeze it. Let it become prominent and once it is prominent, go to a general surgeon who will excise it completely. Its easier for a surgeon to take out the cyst when it is prominent, so that whole of the cyst is removed because if any remnant is left back, it will recur.