Full bibliography

Lipedemawas first described by Allen and Hines in 1940 (1).Today, however, a large number of physicians remain unaware of the disease and its symptoms. Many lipedema patients are not correctly diagnosed or effectively treated until after they have endured decades of suffering (2). Epidemiological statistics on the incidence of lipedema are not available. An investigation of patients treated at one lymphedema clinic from 1995 to 1996 revealed lipedema in approximately 15% of the patients treated on an inpatient basis (3). A similar number (8% to 17%) was reported in surveys carried out in 2003 in four lymphedema clinics in Germany (4). In contrast to lymphedema, literature on lipedema is extremely sparse. Lipedema findings in the Anglo-American literature in particular often report only isolated case studies (5-8). Many more publications, including a monograph, are available in German literature (9). Table 7-1 lists synonyms for lipedema.