TREATMENT OF INSULIN-INDUCED LIPOHYPERTROPHY BY LIPOSUCTION IN A TYPE-1 DIABETIC

Extensive areas of lipohypertrophy at the insulin injection sites on both thighs, upper arms and buttocks had developed in a 22-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes. Tissue biopsy showed fat cells of normal size, while the stromal cells in primary culture from the lipohypertrophy tissue demonstrated a greater degree of new fat-cell formation than normal fat tissue, i.e. there was fat-cell hyperplasia. Although the patient avoided these sites for insulin injection during the subsequent 18 months, the amount of excessive fat tissue did not decrease. As the very obvious fat pads distressed the patient, local liposuction was applied without complication at the six affected sites, removing a total of 2,000 ml of fat. - Liposuction is a low-risk curative procedure for removing extensive insulin-induced lipohypertrophic tissue and quickly achieves a cosmetically satisfactory result.