Lipoma Removal by a Surgically Trained GP
No Hidden Costs & Same day operation in London for £295!
What is a Lipoma?
A lipoma is typically a soft fatty lump that slowly grows underneath the skin. It is a non-cancerous overgrowth of fat cells. They can grow anywhere in your body under the skin, including within or deep to muscles. A common site is under the muscles of the forehead. Because they are slow growing they aren’t usually painful so people often only become aware of them one day in the shower, or in photographs or if someone else points it out to them.
The natural history of most lipomas is to slowly continue to grow. As the fatty lump grows it may cause discomfort from physical pressure on the skin, such as if it were on the back when you lay down. Lipomas are not cancerous, but if your lipoma is greater than 5cm in size, fast growing or displayed any other unusual features when examined, then we may need to obtain a scan, such as an ultrasound, prior to any surgery. The reason for this is that very rarely, fatty lumps like this can actually be cancerous (a sarcoma) and may require further treatment.
| NUMBER OF LESIONS | Price
Duration of Appointment |
|---|---|
| Per lesion | £295 50 minutes |
If you see our Doctor and decide against having the procedure, there will be a consultation charge of £69.
Occasionally, your Doctor may be worried that the excised Lipoma is something else. In these circumstances, he may ask your permission to send the specimen off for histological analysis – This costs an additional £200 per specimen.
How will my Lipoma be removed?
A local anaesthetic will be injected around the lesion to make removal pain free. You may eat and drink normally for this form of anaesthetic.
The lipoma is usually removed with a small incision over the lump. Sometimes, to help hide scarring, the lipoma may be approached by a scar near to it rather than directly over it. The aim is to remove the lipoma completely, then the wound is stitched to leave a fine line. The stitches may be dissolving underneath the skin or non-dissolving on the skin surface, in which case they will need to be removed following the surgery, either with our nurse or your local NHS GP Practice Nurse.
What is the recovery like?
A light dressing is applied that usually allows washing over the area, this would stay in place until your wound check appointment around a week later. If stitches need to be removed, they may be removed 1-2 weeks after the surgery depending on the site.
Your price includes the surgeon using stitches to close your wound. The cost of removing your stitches and reviewing your wound by our nurse 1-2 weeks later is £30. If however, the stitches do not need to be removed, then the nurse-led wound check is complimentary.
Histology
We would recommend that you allow your Doctor to send off all excised tissue samples to the lab for analysis. This is because, even though the lesion may look benign (that is, not cancerous), it is very important to check that it definitely is not cancerous. You will have this discussion before the procedure is undertaken.