Lipoma

There is no specific cause of lipomas, occa­sion­ally there might be a history of some blunt injury in that area, in many instances, there might be a family history of similar lipomas, but in most instances, the lipoma arises without a cause.

Most patients will notice a pain­less, soft bump or a lump under their skin and find that over the years the lump grows slightly larger. While the average size of a lipoma will be similar to 3–4 peas bunched together, occa­sion­ally the lipoma enlarges enough to be a visible lump under­neath the skin. Lipomas are gener­ally pain­less, easily mobile under the skin and soft to doughy. Most patients will want their lipoma’s removed for cosmetic reasons, occa­sion­ally some lipomas get a bit painful or restrict the move­ment of muscles.

Lipomas gener­ally stop growing after attaining a certain size, but will not disap­pear on their own.

The majority of lipomas are harm­less, but if the lump you think is a lipoma, starts hurting, or growing in size, please get it examined by your doctor, as on the rare occa­sion you might have a nastier kind of fat cell tumour called Liposarcoma. These gener­ally are much deeper inside the tissues than a lipoma and occur more commonly around the thigh, groin, back of the abdomen or on the back.

As outlined above if you have a soft, pain­less, mobile, smooth, rubbery or doughy lump under your skin, there is a chance it could be a lipoma. You will have to go to your doctor for a clin­ical confirm­a­tion, but lipomas are quite common on the shoulder, fore­arms, trunk, back of the neck.

Unfortunately, Lipoma removal is gener­ally not offered in the NHS. At Reforme Medical Clinic, Cardiff, UK, we would love to help you get rid of the lipoma.

We at Reforme Medical, Cardiff, UK would love to help you get your lipoma removed.

Lipomas can be removed in several ways:

Complete removal, in this tech­nique under local anaes­thesia numbing, a cut is made overlying the length of the lipoma, and the entire lipoma is removed intact and then sent to the patho­lo­gist for an accurate diagnosis. This will leave you with a scar roughly the length of the lipoma that will take about a year to fade.

Small scar removal, in this tech­nique a small cut is made, and the fatty tissue is removed, squeezed or scooped out piece­meal. The advantage is the small incision, the disad­vantage is the tissue is not intact and accurate patho­lo­gical diagnosis, if required, can’t be made.

Liposuction removal, this is cosmet­ic­ally the most accept­able tech­nique were a 2 mm tube is used to suck out the fat without the need for an incision. The disad­vantage is that the tissue can’t be sent to the pathologist.