Quality-of-life in patients with Dercum's disease—before and after liposuction

Abstract

Dercum's disease is characterised by obesity, pronounced pain in the adipose tissue, and a number of associated symptoms. Liposuction has been suggested as a treatment. However, the effect on quality-of-life after liposuction in Dercum's disease has never been investigated. The objective of this study was to examine the quality-of-life in Dercum's disease before and after liposuction. A total of 114 women fulfilling the clinical criteria of Dercum's disease were included. Of the 114 women, 53 were operated on with liposuction and 61 were Dercum controls. In addition, 41 obese healthy women operated on with abdominoplasty were recruited as controls. Health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) was measured with the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the Psychological General Well-Being index (PGWB). The Dercum group had lower HRQoL than the abdominoplasty controls. After liposuction, a slight improvement could be seen in HRQoL in the operated patients compared with preoperatively, but it did not become as high as in the abdominoplasty patients. In conclusion, the findings could suggest that liposuction improves the quality-of-life slightly in Dercum's disease. Nonetheless, the causality is unclear and the improvement is not big enough to warrant operation.

Key Words::

• Liposuction
• Dercum's disease
• adiposis dolorosa
• chronic pain
• obesity
• quality-of-life
• NHP
• PGWB
• HRQoL

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by grants from The Swedish Rheumatism Association, the insurance company Förenade Liv, Clinical Research and Development at Malmö University Hospital, the Helge Wulff's Trust, and the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Sweden.