Giacomo Buso: LIPLEG Provides the Strongest Evidence to Date on Lipedema Treatment
Giacomo Buso, Internal Medicine Physician, Angiologist FMH at Spedali Civili Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article by Maurizio Podda et al., published in The Lancet, adding:
“The LIPLEG trial, recently published in The Lancet, provides what is probably thqe strongest evidence to date on the treatment of lipedema.
In this multicentre randomized trial, 410 women with stage I–III lipedema were assigned to liposuction or continued conservative therapy.
At 12 months, a clinically relevant reduction in leg pain (2 or more points) was achieved in 68% of patients undergoing liposuction versus only 8% with conservative therapy (OR 26.2).
The results were independent of disease stage (the current staging system clearly has no therapeutic implications…). Quality of life also improved significantly more after liposuction.
But the benefit came at a cost: adverse events were reported in 47% of patients undergoing liposuction versus 21% with conservative treatment, and serious adverse events occurred in 8% versus 3%, respectively. Longer-term follow-up is still ongoing.
A personal reflection.
This is probably the most important clinical trial ever published in lipedema and, in a way, that is a bitter consideration.
We now have compelling randomized evidence supporting what is essentially the most invasive therapeutic option available to these patients.
And yet, we still know remarkably little about the epidemiology and pathophysiology of the disease. We still lack objective and reliable diagnostic tools. And we still do not have a truly curative conservative treatment.
LIPLEG is an important achievement and provides much-needed evidence for patients and clinicians. But I would like to see results this convincing in the areas that come before surgery.
Hopefully, this trial will be not only an endpoint, but also a stimulus to finally address these major knowledge gaps.”
Title: Liposuction versus conservative therapy for patients with lipoedema in Germany: a multicentre, randomised controlled clinical trial
Authors: Maurizio Podda, Jeremias Schmidt, Manuel E Cornely, Marten I Steinmetz, Diana Rajewski, Kay-Hendrik Busch, Ziah Taufig, Mojtaba Ghods, Maximilian Kovacs, Sabine Schmid, Daria Kraus, Martin Hellmich, Wiebke Müller, Petra Schiller, Oliver A Cornely
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