eMedicine Specialties > General Surgery > Abdomen

Lipomas: Follow-up

Author: Todd A Nickloes, DO, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Trauma/Critical Care, University of Tennessee Medical Center
Coauthor(s): Daniel D Sutphin, MD, Chief Resident, Department of General Surgery, University of Tennessee Memorial Medical Center; Klaus Radebold, MD, PhD, Research Associate, Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
Contributor Information and Disclosures

Updated: Jan 15, 2009

Outcome and Prognosis

The outcome and prognosis are excellent for benign lipomas. Recurrence is uncommon, it may happen if the excision was incomplete.

Future and Controversies

Liposuction may be employed more often in small facial lipomas, because favorable aesthetic results have been obtained through strategically placed incisions. Liposuction is indicated for the treatment of medium (ie, 4-10 cm) and large (ie, >10 cm) lipomas; in small lipomas, no advantage has been reported, because these tumors can be extracted through small incisions.13,14,15,16

Lipoma formation has been reported as an unusual complication of liposuction and has also been found to occur following trauma.1,18  The mechanism in these cases is unknown. Research on genetic markers of atypical lipomatous tumors and liposarcomas is ongoing. These tumors have been shown to express receptors for leptin.19

 
Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Carol EH Scott-Conner, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Iowa College of Medicine, for her contributions to this article.



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References
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Further Reading

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Keywords

lipoma, lipomas, liposuction, liposarcoma, fatty tumor, fatty tumors, lipoma removal, angiolipoma, lipomatous, pseudolipoma, teratoma, adenolipomas, hamartoma, cardiac lipomas, soft-tissue tumor, benign tumors of fatty tissue, benign small neoplasms, submucosal tumors of adipose tissue, duodenal lipomas, colonic lipomas, lipoblastomas, hibernomas, esophageal lipomas, intussusception, intestinal lipomas, intestinal obstruction, intramuscular lipoma, pediatric lipoblastomas, benign mesenchymal tumors, lipomas of the lung, breast lipomas, subcutaneous lipomas, lipomas of the vulva, frontalis-associated subfascial lipoma

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Contributor Information and Disclosures

Author

Todd A Nickloes, DO, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Trauma/Critical Care, University of Tennessee Medical Center
Todd A Nickloes, DO is a member of the following medical societies: American College of Osteopathic Surgeons, American Medical Association, American Osteopathic Association, Association for Academic Surgery, Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, Society of Critical Care Medicine, Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, Southeastern Surgical Congress, and Southern Medical Association
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Coauthor(s)

Daniel D Sutphin, MD, Chief Resident, Department of General Surgery, University of Tennessee Memorial Medical Center
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Klaus Radebold, MD, PhD, Research Associate, Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
Klaus Radebold, MD, PhD is a member of the following medical societies: American Gastroenterological Association and New York Academy of Sciences
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Medical Editor

Juan B Ochoa, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Pharmacy Editor

Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD, Senior Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Managing Editor

David L Morris, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Surgery, St George Hospital, University of New South Wales, Australia
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

CME Editor

Paolo Zamboni, MD, Professor of Surgery, Chief of Day Surgery Unit, Chair of Vascular Diseases Center, University of Ferrara, Italy
Paolo Zamboni, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Venous Forum and New York Academy of Sciences
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

John Geibel, MD, DSc, MA, Vice Chairman, Professor, Department of Surgery, Section of Gastrointestinal Medicine and Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine; Director of Surgical Research, Department of Surgery, Yale-New Haven Hospital
John Geibel, MD, DSc, MA is a member of the following medical societies: American Gastroenterological Association, American Physiological Society, American Society of Nephrology, Association for Academic Surgery, International Society of Nephrology, New York Academy of Sciences, and Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract
Disclosure: AMGEN Royalty Other; AstraZeneca Grant/research funds Other

 
 
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