Background: Preoperative recognition of tumor plane is important to avoid surgical complications in surgeries involving the scalp. Ultrasonography is a useful diagnostic tool to detect the depth of tumor noninvasively. However, some findings are not always in accordance with the actual locations of lipomas, especially in the forehead.
Objects: To evaluate the accuracy of preoperative ultrasonographic findings for the location of lipomas in the forehead.
Materials and methods: The study included 14 patients with lipomas in the forehead who all underwent preoperative ultrasonography and surgical excision of the lesions. The authors compared the diagnostic location of tumors by ultrasonography with the actual location in the surgical field.
Results: On ultrasonography, 10 of 14 cases were diagnosed as frontalis-associated lipomas. However, 13 cases were confirmed as frontalis-associated lipomas intraoperatively, and only 1 case as superficial lipoma, which did not correspond with the ultrasonographic finding. The ultrasonographic findings were accurate in 9 of 14 cases (64.3%).
Conclusion: The accuracy of ultrasonography on the location of lipomas in the forehead is not as high as expected. Therefore, the surgeon must consider the possibility of deep lipoma even if a forehead lipoma is superficial in location on ultrasonography.