A Large Lipoma of the Labia Majora

Abstract

A 40-year-old woman presented with a huge right labial swelling that had been enlarging gradually for the last four years. A 10-cm labial swelling was revealed on clinical examination. Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to rule out other possible diagnoses, such as hernias, vulvar cysts and tumours. When it came to assessing and diagnosing soft tissue swelling, MRI was the method of choice. It determined that the swelling had a bright T1 and T2 signal intensity similar to that of subcutaneous fat, with a decline in signal in fat-saturated sequences, indicating a diagnosis of vulvar lipoma. The mass was surgically excised, and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of a benign lipoma. Lipomas are considered the most common soft tissue tumours accounting for a prevalence of 1% in the population. Their occurrence in the vulva in premenopausal women is considered rare and only a few cases of vulvar lipomas have been reported in the literature. Herein, we report a rare case of a patient with vulvar lipoma and review the available literature.