lipoma

[tungablk]

I have a lipoma sitting on my spine on my lower back. my doctor has sggested surgery. I dont know what a lipoma is or even where it come from. I am a 38 year old female. im 5'3' weighing 220 lbs.what shold I do

[Chriss63]

Hi I have spina bifida and when I was 4 years old and again when I was 39 I had to have a lypoma removed from my spinal cord (lower back) because it was affecting the nerves to my legs and would have made me wheelchair bound. Do lypomas usually return???

[Dr Vinod]

Dear tungablk,

Hello!

I would want to reflect the views of an earlier post  by an neurologist on medhelp for you:

"Lipomas are quite common benign tumours.  Most of the time (>95%) they are completely benign and need only watching.  Surgery is usually done when something is compromised by them, such as muscle invasion and nerve compromise.  You should get a second opinion about your lipoma from a neurosurgeon.  A general surgeon's first thought is surgery.  You need to know if it is completely extradural and not compromising any structure (nerve).  At the same time, you can have spinal column and cord examined to see if you have a disc herniation or whatever to cause the pain.  Most of the time, lipoma surgery is for cosmetic reasons.  But, if you have one lipoma you might have others, so it is best to have things checked out. "

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/Lipoma-on-mid-spine/show/293138

Take care!