Surgical management of subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn required due to a lack of improvement: a very rare case

Summary Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn (ScFN) is an uncommon and transient disease characterized by defined areas of fat necrosis and overlying cutaneous nodule lesions. It usually becomes apparent within the first 6 weeks of life in full‐term or post‐term infants. It is caused by generalized and/or local tissue hypoperfusion. The skin lesions of ScFN tend generally to improve spontaneously in a few weeks. We present a full‐term newborn with birth distress. After therapeutic hypothermia, she presented voluminous and numerous subcutaneous fat necrosis with extensive calcifications. Surgical management was decided at her ninth month because of a total lack of regression. Hypercalcaemia, the most threatening complication, appeared only after this delayed surgery. What's already known about this topic? Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn is an uncommon and transient disease characterized by defined areas of fat necrosis and overlying cutaneous nodular lesions. The lesions are caused by generalized and/or local tissue hypoperfusion. It usually becomes apparent within the first 6 weeks of life in full‐term or post‐term infants. What does this study add? To date, and to the best of our knowledge, no case of surgical management for therapeutic purposes has been reported, except for ulcerated lesions. No author has addressed the issue of a lack of regression of lesions. This case demonstrates that skin lesions do not follow a constant rate of regression.