Lipoedema Stage 3: Lumps, Pain and When to Operate

How to recognise stage 3

• Visible deformity: large fat lobules on thighs and knees.
• Rubbing between the legs causing sores and making walking harder.
• Constant pain, not only on pressure.
• Hard tissue from accumulated fibrosis.
• The foot is still spared: the cuff sign at the ankle.

What can be done

Conservative treatment stays necessary but no longer reverses the accumulated volume. Fibrosed fat does not respond. Here surgery stops being cosmetic and becomes functional: regaining mobility and removing pain.

How many stages of surgery

Usually two or three separate operations, for volume and for safety, treating one area at a time with WAL, which uses water pressure instead of mechanical trauma and respects the lymphatic vessels.

What will and will not change

Volume, pain and mobility change. What does not change is that lipoedema is chronic: compression and care continue after surgery. Anyone promising a definitive cure is not telling you the truth.

Keep reading: Stages of lipoedema · Symptoms · Lipoedema surgery in Spain