Dear Dr. Hamid,

My fiance has a lipoma on the back of his ear. It has now become
inflamed and he has been given antibiotics inorder to eliminate the
inflammation and remove it surgically. however it has been three weeks
now and they keep telling him that it is still inflammed and it can
not be removed. So my question is what are the dangers of an inflamed
lipoma? and what are the dangers of removing it when its inflamed?

Thanks

Dear Member,

Lipoma very seldom get infected since the skin overlying it is normally is
intact.What can often get infected but may appear like lipoma is called
Sebaceous Cyst.Usually there is a small tunnel connecting the skin surface to
the centre of the cyst which mainly contain oily stuff.IF organisms from the
skin surface manage to travel through that tinny tunnel into the oily
centre,then infection set in.
If the infection is so severe,changing the oily stuff into abscess,then you will
need an emergency operation to drain the abscess.At operation,the surgeon would
scrap the wall of the cavity to remove all the cyst wall cells which were
responsible to produce the oily stuff.
If the infection is not serious,meaning no abscess form as yet,antibiotics can
be given to treat the infection and hence reduce the inflammation so as to
facilitate with the subsequent operation.But,if after a full course of
antibiotics(1week),there is still inflammation,then it could be that the
infection is more serious than the doctor originally thought.In that case,an
operation is warranted.
If an operation is done in the midst of infection or abscess,general anaesthesia
is required because local anaesthesia doesn't work in this circumstances.

good luck

dr hamid