title: What should be the treatment modality in giant cutaneous lipomas? Review of the literature and report of 4 cases.
abstract: We present three females (20, 39 and 58 years old) and one male patient (47 years old), admitted to our clinic with 3-20 years history of giant lipomas on periscapular (n = 2), posterior cervical (n = 1) and abdominal areas (n = 1), respectively. The sizes of the tumours ranged from 15 x 14 cm(2) to 35 x 25 cm(2) weighing 1900-12 350 g. In all cases, the diagnosis of the lesions was by physical examination and confirmed with computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonography. Incisional biopsy or aspiration cytology were used to exclude liposarcoma. Three lesions with surrounding capsule formation and lipofibromatous changes underwent open surgery. In one case, as the capsule formation was not evident, suction assisted lipectomy was attempted. However, no aspirate could be evacuated possibly due to the fibrotic nature of the lesion and open surgery was performed. The follow-up period was 14 months to 5 years and no recurrence was noted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ataturk Research and Training Hospital, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ozlem Karataş
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Silistreli
authors.forename: Ebru Ulger
authors.initials: EU
authors.lastname: Durmuş
authors.forename: Betül Gözel
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Ulusal
authors.forename: Yücel
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oztan
authors.forename: Metin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Görgü
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008067:Lipoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed