Have your ever had a knot or a lump in your arm, for instance, and didn’t know what it was? If you rushed to the doctor just to find out that it was a Lipoma, or a fatty tumor, no harm done. You didn’t waste your money because any tumor needs to be checked by a physician to rule out cancer.
How do you treat a lipoma, though, if you find out that you have one? Well, the general rule is that if it fails to bother you, don’t bother it. The deeper answer to this question could largely depend on the location of your lipoma, so use this handy guide to help you decide how to treat it once you have confirmed that it is a harmless lipoma:
Rule out cancer. According to mayoclinic.com, a lipoma is easy to detect because it’s soft, and it moves when you push on it. A lipoma is rarely, but could be cancerous. (If the lump fails to move, then be sure to consult a physician.) A lipoma can occur at any age, but you usually notice these as you get older because a lipoma tends to grow larger over time.
The best action is to visit your physician and let him/her feel of the lump. If it is a lipoma, the physician will be able to tell you so. Even so, if the physician is unsure as to whether your lump, or knot, is a harmless lipoma, he/she will likely choose to biopsy the lump, or remove it, altogether. Often, your physician can perform this procedure in the office.
Don’t poke at it. Even though a lipoma is harmless, you still know it’s there, and you might want to poke at it. Don’t. Poking at it only irritates the lipoma and the skin above it, and you could end up producing irritation that you could later take as symptoms relating to another illness.
For instance, unless a lipoma locates itself in a difficult spot, you typically will not suffer any pain. However, if you do continue to poke at the lipoma, you will produce some irritation.
Then, without even realizing it, you might begin to wonder whether or not a lipoma is some other condition because of the pain, when you actually produced the irritation.
Notice the location. According to mayoclinic.com, a lipoma is located between the skin and the muscle and grows slowly. Even so, could it grow into/or put pressure on the muscle? If your lipoma locates itself near your spine or other critical areas, do visit your physician to see whether or not you need to get it removed.
Several options exist for treating/removing a lipoma should you need to have it removed. (For example, it could be in a place that obstructs movement of a body limb.) According to mayoclinic.com, steroid injections and liposuction can help reduce the size of the lipoma, but if you want to be completely rid of your lipoma, surgery is the only method.
Sources
Mayoclinic.com
