Lipedema and Nodules?

Lipedema is a subcutaneous adipose tissue disease. One of the characteristics of lipedema is firm nodules in the subcutaneous tissue. These nodules tend to be evenly distributed and grape to walnut in size. Dercum's disease is another subcutaneous adipose tissue disease that is associated with painful lipomas. These lipomas can range in size from sunflower seeds to even the size of grapefruit. In Dercum's disease, just the nodules are tender, whereas in lipedema all of the subcutaneous tissue is tender. There is a lot of overlap between Dercum's disease and lipedema.
Liposuction almost always helps lipedema in terms of pain, tenderness, and even mobility. Liposuction usually improves lipedema nodules as well, but sometimes it requires Manuel Lipedema Nodule Extraction. With Dercum's disease liposuction has more mixed results as far as completely removing the nodules and relieving pain. This is a long way of saying that if you have lipedema and not Dercum's Disease liposuction, possibly with Manual Lipedema Extraction, will likely remove your nodules. Wishing you the best of health

Lipedema nodules are comprised of both fat and fibrosis. Liposuction surgery can help improve the nodules, especially if combined with mechanical or energy-based tools to break apart the fibrosis, such as power-assisted liposuction (PAL) and ultrasound-assisted liposuction (i.e. Vaser), respectively. It is recommended to make a consultation appointment with a lipedema surgeon for an examination and to discuss your case in further detail.

Yes, this may be improved with surgery. See more information in the link below. We have experience treating hundred's of lipedema patients.

Liberty email is a diagnosis of exclusion and there are no definitive, solid tests or guidelines for confirming the diagnosis. Making the diagnosis is there for subjective. Depending on people’s perspective determine and diagnosis is often utilized for individuals who just have fat on their extremities. The condition is poorly understood, but generally involves a gradual change in fat distribution often with increasing subcutaneous fat layers, especially in the lower extremities with age.
Liposuction can be moderately helpful to debulk and reduce the size of the extremities but often doesn’t always give aesthetically great looking results. Painful nodules are not associated with having lipodystrophy or lymphedema. I suggest getting a work up for the pain from nodules to confirm what their ideology is. These may represent which can be tender to palpation. There are other conditions they can leave people with multiple nodules as well.
Generally speaking, Liposuction is not a good treatment for removing individual manuals, but a lot depends on their ideology. Standard treatment for lipomas is direct excision.
Consult with your primary care, doctor, local dermatologist, or plastic surgeons in your community.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom, MD