The Relationship Between Lymphatic Impairment and Lipedema Severity

Today, we explore research conducted by Daniel Gould and colleagues at USC, which aimed to characterize lymphatic flow in individuals with lipedema. The study involved 19 lipedema patients being evaluated for surgical intervention, who underwent lymphoscintigraphy of the legs.The findings revealed that 63.2% of the participants exhibited pathological lymphatic transport. Moreover, there was a significant correlation between the severity of lipedema and impaired lymphatic transport, suggesting a potential link between the two conditions.The authors recommend that women with lipedema should be screened for lymphatic impairment leading to edema to determine if they might benefit from lymphatic surgery. This study aligns with several others in recent years, indicating that edema is a common characteristic of lipedema.