Lipoma Surgery : Are Scans Needed, How Long Does Treatment Take, and Can It Come Back?

Generally, no full-body scan or test is recommended to detect all lipomas. The goal of treatment is not to remove every lipoma in the body, but to treat those that are aesthetically unappealing, increasing in size, or causing pain or discomfort. These lipomas are usually identified through a clinical examination. Patients often point out the lipomas that bother them the most sometimes 20–30 in total and we examine, mark, and remove only those specific ones.

If there are up to 5–8 lipomas, the procedure can usually be done under local anesthesia, where small injections are given to numb each area before removal. However, if a patient has 10 or more lipomas 15 or even 20 it’s not practical to give multiple local injections. In such cases, the surgery is done under general anesthesia, and all selected lipomas are removed in one sitting.

As for recurrence, the chance of a lipoma coming back at the same site after removal is less than 1%, which is very low. Usually, it does not recur in the same spot. However, because lipoma is a genetic condition, new lipomas can develop in different areas of the body in the future, and those can be treated later if needed.