LIQUEFYING NODULAR PANNICULITIS

Abstract

Circumscribed or nodular inflammatory diseases of the subcutaneous fatty tissue have not been the subject of a great deal of study, as this tissue is seldom the primary site of a disease process. Most frequently the involvement is secondary to an incidental or adjacent pathologic focus. However, a number of distinct clinical entities in which the subcutaneous fatty tissue apparently plays the fundamental or characteristic role have recently been receiving a greater degree of recognition. Most of these entities can be grouped under the generic term subcutaneous fat necrosis,¹although many other terms indicative of the same process are found in the literature, such as cystosteatonecrosis,²lipogranuloma,³lipogranulomatosis,⁴lipodystrophy⁵and liponecrosis.⁶The process is essentially granuloma of the fatty tissue in which the fat undergoes lysis and subsequent phagocytosis and in which characteristic foam cells and giant cells of foreign body type are present.