How Long Does Lipoma Surgery Take to Heal from Your Back?

Lipomas are benign fatty tumors that occur under the skin and less commonly within the muscle. They are associated with mild discomfort and a lump underneath the skin. It is always best to talk to an expert plastic surgeon to determine whether the lipoma is possibly a cyst or a tumor or hernia. We would have to remove the lipoma to be sure that it is not something else and we usually do this by sending it to a pathologist for evaluation. If a lipoma is painful, then an exam is needed to make sure it is not compressing on a nerve or whether the diagnosis is different. Aftercare for a lipoma includes gentle compression and Plato’s Scar Serum twice daily on the wound.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Lipomas, which are benign fat tumors (fat accumulations), ordinarily do not cause symptoms. However, in areas where they protrude and bulge, they often cause considerable cosmetic distress. Traditional surgical approaches require an incision along the entire diameter of the bulge, which, with larger lesions, typically requires many stitches to close, longer healing times and consequently are more like to leave  prominent, unsightly scars.

Piezotherapy is a simpler approach that works for removing most small to medium sized lipomas--best for those measuring only a few centimeters across in diameter. With this technique a small punch is made under local anesthesia over the center of the bulge. The fatty contents are then "delivered" through the small opening that results, much the same way a full-sized baby is delivered through the small opening of the vagina. Once all the contents are removed, the small incision can be closed with very few sutures, and the scar that results is naturally far smaller than those created by tradiitonal excisional surgery and generally barely visible because of its smaller size. Healing, too, tends to be faster and less eventful owing to the smaller incision.

The larger surgical incisions produced by the more traditional surgical approach to lipoma removal and the greater number of stitches, as appears to be the case here, will likely entail a longer overall healing time and greater initial restrictions on physical activity. Such possible restrictions need to be discussed specifically with the surgeon who performed the procedure.