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

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.