A Cochrane review included 2 studies with a total of 238 subjects. One small trial (n = 25) compared amoxicillin with cephradine and found no significant difference between the two antibiotics in terms of symptom relief and abscess formation. Another, low quality study compared breast emptying alone as "supportive therapy" vs antibiotic therapy plus supportive therapy, and no therapy. The findings of the latter study suggested faster clearance of symptoms for women using antibiotics.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency by indirectness (no placebo in the comparison), by imprecise results (limited study size for each comparison), and by potential reporting bias (only few small trials reported).