[Idiopathic liquefying panniculitis with fatal outcome]

A 34 year's old female patient died of nodular liquefying panniculitis after a six months evolution. The only systemic lesions found at post mortem histological examination were an involvement of both pleural cavities with an oily fluid. This seemed to have been the cause of death. This symptomatology was not observed in any of the 26 fatal cases of Weber-Christian disease published in the literature among which 11 cases with no other lesions than adipous tissue lesions, 6 cases where death was related to secondary effects of panniculitis and 9 cases where death was related in intercurrent diseases.