Localized lipoatrophy (atrophic connective tissue disease panniculitis)

Four patients with localized lipoatrophy were observed. All were female, and three were children. Lymphocytic panniculitis was observed in early biopsy specimens of all four cases, with focal histiocytic granulomas in one case. Later biopsy specimens in three patients showed that the inflammation was transient. These pathologic findings and reports of lipodystrophies associated with nephritis, hypocomplementemia, and other inflammatory or immunologic disorders offer an opportunity for histologic and immunologic study of such patients. Localized lipoatrophy may represent the end stage of panniculitis in a localized expression of connective tissue disease.