Table of Contents
Definition / general | Epidemiology | Sites | Case reports | Treatment | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Positive stains | Additional referencesCite this page: Singh C. Lipomatosis. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/softtissueadiposelipomatosis.html. Accessed April 25th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Diffuse overgrowth of mature adipose tissue
Epidemiology
- Rare disorder of children under 2 years or adults
- Associated with obesity, Cushing’s disease, steroid therapy, protease inhibitors for HIV
- Familial multiple lipomatosis: rare, usually autosomal dominant; multiple lipomas of trunk and extremities with relative sparing of the head and shoulders; due to translocation involving high-mobility-group protein isoform I-C on chromosome 12 and the lipoma preferred partner gene on chromosome 3 (An Bras Dermatol 2012;87:324)
Sites
- Limb (may cause massive enlargement) or trunk
Case reports
- 89 year old man with familial disease (Dermatol Online J 2003;9:9)
- Infiltrating lipomatosis in face of child (J Plast Reconstr Aesthet Surg 2009;62:e561)
- Causing mediastinal widening on chest Xray of morbidly obese woman (Cases J 2008;1:171)
- Familial disease with normal karyotype (Cutis 2007;79:227)
Treatment
- Palliative surgical removal of excess fat
- May recur
- May lead to amputation of extremity due to distortion or loss of function
Gross description
- Poorly circumscribed aggregates of normal appearing fat in subcutaneous and skeletal muscle (but not confined to muscle)
- Does not affect nerves
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Sheets and lobules of white adipose tissue that may infiltrate skeletal muscle
- May involve bone
Additional references
