Lipodystrophia progressiva is a condition in which, characteristically, there is a loss of the subcutaneous fat of the face, neck, thorax, arms and abdomen without assignable cause or gross symptoms of ill health.1 The loss of fat is symmetric and slowly progressive to the stage of almost complete disappearance in the affected areas.2 An essential feature is the inability to recover the panniculus adiposus.3 In association with the lipoatrophy there may be, particularly in females, an increase in the subcutaneous fat below the level of the iliac crest.
SYMPTOMS, DIAGNOSIS AND PROGNOSIS
Although the condition was reported by Mitchell in 1885,4 it is sometimes known as Barraquer-Simons' disease, since it was first recognized as a clinical entity by Barraquer5 in 1906 and was more completely studied in 1911 by Simons,6 who first performed a biopsy.7 Thereafter the striking features of the condition caused