This article provides a comprehensive overview of lipomas, including their types, symptoms, causes, and when to seek medical attention.
Lipoma is a soft, movable lump beneath or under your skin. It might feel a bit troubling. A benign or less harmful and non-cancerous growth of fat cells. These are most common, and harmless, understanding them can provide peace of mind and guide appropriate action in easy or hard conditions.
What are Lipomas?
Lipoma is an overgrowth of fat cells that forms a soft lump under the skin. They're generally slow-growing and range in size, often between 1 to 10 centimeters. You might experience them on your shoulders, armpits, chest, back, neck, thighs.
How They Feel and Appear:
- Soft and Movable: Lipomas appears as soft and easily movable when you touch them.
- Slow Growth: They generally develop slowly almost in months or years.
- Painless: They are usually painless and most lipomas don't cause pain.
Types of Lipomas
All lipomas appears with different characteristics, all are fat and small in size when they start occurring
- Angiolipomas
- Myelolipomas
- Fibrolipomas
- Spindle cell
- Pleomorphic
- Hibernomas
When Lipomas causes concern?
Here are some main causes or concern of Lipomas when-
- They grow large and press on nerves or internal organs, leading to pain or functional impairment.
- They grow rapidly or change in appearance.
- They cause cosmetic distress.
Who is at risk?
- Those who have a lipoma or related disorder may increase your risk of getting lipoma.
- They are most common in the age group between 40-60 years.
- Obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes patients are at high risk of getting lipomas due to medications and side effects of medicines.
What triggers a Lipoma?
Here are several factors that are associated with Lipomas growth and development,including-
- Genetics
- Medical condition
- Trauma
How to diagnose lipomas?
Here are some methods by using you can diagnose the conditions of lipomas-
- Physical Examination: For lipomas, a simple physical exam is often helpful.
- Imaging: Severe lipomas may require imaging studies like ultrasounds, MRIs, or CT scans to assess its relationship to surrounding structures.
- Biopsy: In cases where the diagnosis is uncertain, a method called biopsy (tissue sample) is taken for microscopic examination.
When to seek medical advice?
It's important to consult a doctor if you experience conditions like-
- Rapid growth of a lipoma.
- Redness, warmth, or hardness of the lump.
- Changes in the overlying skin.
- Any new lumps.
- Pain or tenderness in the lump.
What are tests used to detect abnormalities and Lipoma?
Here are many tests offered by Ganesh diagnostic and Imaging centre, the best imaging centre in Delhi, NCR that could help you to detect and diagnose the Lipoma-
Imaging studies-
Other test if they appear on other parts of body, it can be due to cancer as well-
- Breast cancer (Book Now)
- Redness (Book Now)
- Skin Cancer Package (Book Now)
- Kidney Cancer Package (Book Now)
Where do Lipoma generally grow?
It is proven in the study that Lipomas can be anywhere on the body, but usually it is noticed that the lipomas occur mostly on-
- Arms or legs
- Back
- Neck
- Shoulders
- chest and torso
- Forehead
Conclusion
A lipoma is an oval-shaped lump of tissue that grows under or beneath the skin. It’s made of fat, It moves easily when you touch it and doesn’t cause any type of pain. Lipomas can appear anywhere on the body, but they’re most common on the back, trunk (torso), arms, shoulders and neck. It is generally noticed that it usually appears on- Arms, legs, back, shoulders and forehead etc. It is important to understand when to seek medical attention and when it's necessary to go for imaging tests at Best Imaging Centre in New Delhi, the Ganesh diagnostic and imaging centre.
FAQS
Q. When should I see medical care?
If your lipomas started growing or appeared more than usual. If you have a skin growth, lump or knot under your skin, you need to contact healthcare providers to avoid future complications and overall-well being.
Q. Are lipomas painful?
No, if the thing on your body is lipoma, it is generally painless and movable.
Q. Can I prevent Lipoma?
Lipomas are inherited. They are generally transferred genetically. You can lower this by reducing the consumption of alcohol.
