[Lipomas in the head and neck region]

According to the present state of knowledge, lipomas must be classified as rare benign tumours of the fatty tissue with low quality of dignity. Apart from their pathogenesis, the present paper discusses their histology as well as their clinical picture and therapy, evaluating the patients who had passed through the Outpatients' Department of the Rostock University Clinic and Policlinic of Stomatology between 1959 and 1974. Of 267 patients with benign tumors only 15 (9 men, 6 women) had lipomas in the cephalocervical region. The mean age at treatment beginning was 44.4 years. Only 8 patients had been referred with the provisional diagnosis of lipoma; the remaining patients, with the diagnosis of "questionable tumour", "fibroma", "lymphoma", "cervical cyst" and "submental dermoid".