[Panniculitis in children]

Abstract

Panniculitis is an inflammation of subcutaneous fat responsible for fairly uniform clinical features including nodules, plaques or swelling located in the subcutaneous tissue, occasionally progressing to atrophy of subcutaneous fat. Some forms of panniculitis specific of childhood are responsible for readily recognizable clinical patterns. Examples include acute neonatal fat necrosis, sclerema neonatorum, cryopanniculitis, steroid-induced panniculitis, and toxoplasmosis-related multinodular fat necrosis of Royer syndrome. With the exception of erythema nodosum, the cause of panniculitis is identified upon histologic examination of a deep skin biopsy which ensures the differentiation of infectious nodules, vasculitis nodules, and apparently primary forms of nodular panniculitis fitting the description of Weber-Christian syndrome, Rothmann-Makaï syndrome, histiocytic cytophagic panniculitis or lupus panniculitis.