"Pot-lid" technique for aesthetic removal of small lipoma on the face

Patients presenting with an asymptomatic subcutaneous facial lipoma desire its removal in order to restore the contour of the face. The standard treatment for lipoma is excision, with the size of the incision being about one-half of that of the tumor itself. The long linear scar resulting from simple excision may fail to improve the appearance of the patient. The removal of the lipoma through a small incision or a punch hole decreases the size of the resulting scar, but does not eliminate it completely.

To improve the aesthetic outcome of the commonly used technique for lipoma removal, known as the narrow hole extrusion technique (NHET), by modification.

Four patients (three men and one woman) with small lipomas on the face (three on the forehead and one on the cheek) were selected for the procedure. A 5-mm punch was inserted deep into the center of the lesion to create a circular hole. The punched-out piece of skin was kept in normal saline. The lipoma was extruded with the help of a hemostat and by squeezing pressure. This resulted in the formation of a subcutaneous cavity. After achieving hemostasis, two absorbable buried subcutaneous sutures were placed to create support for the graft. The punched-out piece of skin was then positioned to cover the defect, like a "lid on a pot" and dressed.

The color and texture match of the graft with the surrounding skin were excellent in three of the four patients by the end of 6 months. The graft, which was depressed in the fourth patient, improved through spot dermabrasion.

The proposed modification of the NHET for lipoma removal improves the cosmetic outcome.