Diagnosis and management of lipoedema – a review paper

Szypłowska Małgorzata, Gorecka Adrianna, Kuś Adrian, Zaremba Bartłomiej, Obel Michał. Diagnosis and management of lipoedema – a review paper. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2020;10(9):494‑499. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2020.10.09.059 https://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2020.10.09.059 https://zenodo.org/record/4042181 The journal has had 5 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. § 8. 2) and § 12. 1. 2) 22.02.2019. © The Authors 2020; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 15.09.2020. Revised: 21.09.2020. Accepted: 22.09.2020. Diagnosis and management of lipoedema – a review paper Małgorzata Szypłowska1, Adrianna Gorecka1, Adrian Kuś1, Bartłomiej Zaremba1, Michał Obel2 1Student Research Circle at the Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Research Methodology, Medical University of Lublin 2Student Research Circle at the Department of Endocrinology, Medical University of Lublin Supervisor: PhD Halina Piecewicz-Szczęsna3 3Department of Epidemiology and Clinical Research Methodology, Medical University of Lublin Corresponding author: malgorzata.szyplowska@gmail.com Abstract Lipoedema is a chronic progressive disorder of adipose tissue leading to an enlargement of lower extremities. It is considered to be rare; however, the prevalence of the disease is underestimated because it is commonly misdiagnosed as obesity or lymphedema and the general awareness is poor. The etiology of the disorder is considered to be multifarious, including genetic inheritance, hormonal imbalance and microcirculation alterations. Diagnosis is mainly based on medical history and physical examination. Management of lipoedema is focused on reducing the symptoms, improving the quality of life and preventing further progression of the disease. The aim of this paper is to raise the awareness of the disease and provide appropriate clinical guidance for the assessment of lipoedema. We searched through the PubMed/MEDLINE database and took into consideration all of the results available as of 6 September, 2020 and outlined the current evidence regarding lipoedema epidemiology, etiology, clinical presentation, differential diagnosis, and management. Better understanding of lipoedema is crucial for establishing an early diagnosis and a proper treatment, which in turn will reduce the psychological and physical implications associated with the disease. Key words: lipoedema, lymphoedema, lipolymphoedem