Treatment of Benign Symmetric Lipomatosis

경부 지방종증의 치험

Benign symmetric lipomatosis was initially described in 1846 by Sir Benjamin Brodie. In 1888, Otto Madelung presented 33 cases of benign symmetric lipomatosis and described the classic“horse collar”cervical distribution of the lipomatous tissue. Launois and Bensaude described benign symmetric lipomatosis as a distint syndrome characterized by a diffuse, symmetric, fatty accumulation in the cervical region. This disease is rare condition affecting mostly middle aged alcoholic men and associated with many systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hyperuricemia, renal tubular acidosis, liver enzyme abnormality etc. The condition does not spontaneously involute and surgical excision is the only proven method of treatment, and recurrence is frequent. We experienced six patients of benign symmetric lipomatosis who underwent surgical excision via collar incision which afford wide exposure of the entire cervical area. We report them with the review of literature.