Lipedema – The Disease They Call FAT:
Lipedema – The Disease They Call FAT: An Overview for Clinicians is a monograph that provides a clinical synopsis of this condition.
Lipedema is a fat disorder that affects women and is often mistaken for simple obesity. Believed to be hormonal in nature, lipedema usually develops at puberty but can develop or worsen later in life due to hormonal changes associated with pregnancy, menopause, or gynecological surgery. Estimates of the incidence of lipedema range as high as 11% of the post-pubertal female population, which is approximately 17 million women in the United States alone.
This ebook is a practical overview of the condition and provides important information for healthcare providers who treat women and for women who have or suspect they have lipedema.
About the Authors
A collaboration amongst experts worldwide brings knowledge of the lymphatic system, and specifically lipedema, lymphedema and obesity. A process that took 18 months Lipedema-The Disease They Call FAT: An Overview for Clinicians offers a thoughtful and concise overview of this little known and generally mis-diagnosed fat disorder for healthcare professionals and for patients as well.
Erez Dayan, MD
Dr. Erez Dayan is from the Harvard Plastic Surgery Program in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been actively involved in seminal research related to surgical treatments for lymphedema and new technology and imaging modalities for assessing fluid and fat content of various body parts. He has lectured and published on these topics on over 100 occasions nationally and internationally.
Julie N. Kim, MD
Dr. Julie N. Kim is in her first year of residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She recently completed her residency in General Surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. At MSBI she was fortunate to work with both Dr. Mark Smith and Dr. Erez Dayan who introduced her to the intricacies of both lymphedema and lipedema.
Mark L. Smith, MD, FACS
Dr. Mark L. Smith is Professor and System Vice-Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine and Director of Reconstructive Oncology for Northwell Cancer Institute. He is also Director of the Friedman Center for Lymphedema Research and Treatment at The Center for Advanced Medicine and Co-Director of the Lipedema Project. He is an expert in the field of cancer reconstruction and lymphatic surgery.
Catherine A. Seo, PhD
Dr. Catherine Seo is Co-Director of the Lipedema Project and Founder and Director of Lipedema Simplified, LLC. She produced and directed the documentary The Disease They Call FAT. She holds a doctorate in Media Psychology. She has developed online courses on lipedema for patients and healthcare professionals as well as multi-media learning tools.
Robert Damstra, MD, PhD
Dr. Robert J. Damstra is a dermatologist at the Nij Smellinghe Hospital in Drachten, the Netherlands. He co-founded the Drachten Working Group on Lymphedema in 1995 expanding the hospital’s reach to include a specialized expertise center for the diagnosis and treatment of lymphedema and lipedema. The Center collaborates with many national and international groups to put lipedema on the agenda and to create more awareness and recognition of this disease.
Prof Wilfried Schmeller, MD
Professor Dr. Wilfried Schmeller is dermatologic surgeon with expertise in phlebology and lymphology. His background includes the Department of Dermatology at the Universtity of Luebeck, the Vein Clinic in Bad Bertrich, and the Rosenpark-Klinik in Darmstadt. He founded the Hanse-Klinik in Luebeck in 2002 to treat patients with lipedema with liposuction. He has published many scientific articles with this topic. Prof. Schmeller is head of the working group Operative Lymphology of the German Society of Lymphology and has been participating in the new German Guidelines for Lipoedema.
Yvonne Frambach, MD
Dr Yvonne Frambach is a board certified dermatologist who specializes in allergology and medicinal tumour therapy. She has treated chronically ill patients particularly those suffering from inflammatory diseases and tumours as well as those with lipedema and lymphedema. She has been a physician at the Hanse-Klinik since 2014.
Matthew A. Carmody, MD
Dr. Matthew Carmody is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an internist affiliated with Mount Auburn Hospital. He specializes in Internal Medicine and has been instrumental implementing Patient–Centered Medical Home (PCMH), a team-based health care delivery model led by a health care provider that is intended to provide comprehensive and continuous medical care to patients with the goal of obtaining maximized health outcomes.
Prof Etelka Földi, MD
Professor Etelka Földi. MD is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the lymphatic system. She and her husband, Professor Michael Földi. MD founded the Society of German Lymphologists in 1969. Their seminal textbook on lymphology, Földi’s Textbook of Lymphology: for Physicians and Lymphedema Therapists is currently in its third edition and has become a classic treatise on the management of Lymphedema.
Stanley G. Rockson, MD
Stanley G. Rockson MD is the Allan and Tina Neill Professor of Lymphatic Research and Medicine and Stanford University and directs the Stanford Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders, where he conducts basic and clinical research in lymphatic disorders, including lipedema. He is the Founding Chair of the LE&RN Scientific and Medical Advisory Committee. Dr. Rockson has authored more than 150 scientific papers, reviews, book chapters, and books devoted to various aspects of lymphatic biology and disease, vascular biology, and cardiovascular medicine.
What experts are saying about the monograph
“As a clinician, I expect this will quickly become a “standard reference” on Lipedema. The clinical information is concise, thorough, and up to date. The monograph is a helpful reference whether checking stages, differential diagnosis or current treatments. It has become a great teaching document in our clinic for therapists, students and patients alike. It will be a helpful reference to share with physicians as we discuss strategies for care management.”
Jean Flanagan Jay, DPT, PT, CLT
Director, Rehabilitation Services
Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts USA
“This is a high-quality, comprehensive summary of the ‘State of the Art/ Science’ relating to lipoedema/lipedema. This disease badly needs attention both from healthcare professionals in order to improve patient care, and from scientists to improve our basic understanding of this disease with a view to improved treatment. I am hopeful this monograph will provide the platform for such advances.”
Peter Mortimer, MD
Professor of Dermatological Medicine
Molecular and Clinical Sciences Institute (Dermatology Unit)
St. George’s, University of London
London, England UK
“This monograph on Lipedema should be required reading for medical students, and residents in all US training programs. Yes, “obesity” is everywhere but it’s clearly not just one disease. We clinicians need to see the shades of grey within our population that appears to be overweight. The phenotype of Lipedema is obvious once one learns its characteristics and if one can make the correct diagnosis a whole new world is opened for a patient. So think about the millions of woman who go to their doctor(s) complaining or even just wondering about why their legs look and feel different yet leave with incorrect information. It is up to those of us who know about Lipedema to teach those who don’t. This monograph is a key part of that process.”
S. Scott Tapper, MD, FACS, RPVI
Symmetry Vascular Center
Adjunct Professor of Surgery
Lake Erie College of Medicine
Stuart, Florida USA
About The Friedman Center
The Friedman Center for Breast and Lymphatic Surgery at The Center for Advanced Medicine at Northwell Health in New York was founded in 2013. Its focus has been on offering solutions for patients with lymphedema, a debilitating condition that occurs in many patients after cancer treatment.
The Friedman Center’s scope of care now includes treatment for lipedema, a condition that can also result in lymphedema. To that end, the Friedman Center has created the Lipedema Project, a comprehensive program to increase awareness and provide education, research and treatment for lipedema. The Friedman Center is proud to sponsor the lipedema documentary, The Disease They Call FAT, the 1st International Symposium on Lipedema, the Lipedema Think Tank, the Lipedema Solutions Forum for women with lipedema in April 2015 and an online course for physicians.
