WORLD JOURNAL OF PLASTIC SURGERY

Lipomas are the most common benign mesenchymal tumors found in humans, with a prevalance rate of 2.1 per 1000 tumors. Most of them are small, weighing only a few grams and measuring less than 2 centimeters in diameter. However, those weighing upwards of 200 grams and exceeding 10 centimeters have only been described in different anatomic locations on occasion in the literature. A 54-year-old man presented with a large soft tissue growth over the lower back, present for the past 20 years and rapidly enlarging over the past 3 years. A diagnosis of giant lipoma was made. Six hours and several surgical teams were required to remove the 14 kilogram mass. During excision, the skin flaps overlying the mass were preserved and were ultimately used to reconstruct the surgical site defect in a layered fashion once intraoperative frozen pathology confirmed the pre-operative diagnosis. Benign lipomas of the size reported in this case have rarely been described in the literature, as lipomatous masses of this size are often found to instead be either atypical lipomatous tumors or high-grade liposarcomas. In this case, we describe one of the largest of these giant benign lipomas ever reported to date. The case also illustrates the use of an interdisciplanary, multi-team approach to undertake the high-risk operation of removing such a mass from a patient safely. Finally, the case describes aninteresting approach toward reconstructing the large soft tissue defect that remained once the tumor had been removed from the patient.

Thumb hypoplasia, a congenital deficiency of bony and soft tissue of thumb, is often associated with systemic syndromes like Holt-Oram syndrome, and is the second most common thumb anomaly after duplicated thumb. It has traditionally been classified into six categories, which help guide treatment including reconstruction versus pollicization (transfer of the index finger to thumb). Amputation of the thumb and pollicization is the traditional treatment for a IIIB hypoplastic thumb. A five-year-old girl presented with a classic type IIIB hypoplastic thumb in which she has absent motor function, aplasia of the metacarpal, shortened first web space, and an unstable but present carpometacarpal (CMC) joint. Instead of amputation, the thumb was reconstructed by capsulodesis to stabilize the CMC joint, Huber Transfer Opponensplasty and abductor pollicis longus transfer to restore motor function, W-plasty to deepen the first web space, and distraction to lengthen the metacarpal. The patient tolerated the multi-stage reconstruction and bony distraction well. She was followed for one year postoperatively and has demonstrated a functional thumb. This case questions the surgical algorithm for hypoplastic thumbs and suggests a revised classification system for hypoplastic thumbs which would further divide class III based on not only the stability of the CMC joint but the presence or absence of the joint as well. We propose that amputation be reserved for type III hypoplastic thumbs in which the CMC joint is absent, (revised class IIIC) and reconstruction be attempted when the joint is present irrespective of stability (revised classes IIIA and IIIB).