Hi Melissa! 

I have not treated a patient who is prone to lipoma's. However, I don't think I would be concerned dry needling a patient who has them. 

To my understanding, a lipoma is a fatty tumor. We needle through fatty tissue layers every day without issue, so I'm not greatly concerned if I happen to needle one.  In some cases, lipomas can be quite painful due to their own symptomatic neurology, and I believe dry needling may be a great option for pain management in those cases. 

Now let's talk about the inflammatory response with dry needling. The amount of inflammation we are making with dry needling is small and controlled. In fact, dry needling has show to facilitate the release M2 macrophages which are anti-inflammatory in nature!  Not only does it facilitate anti-inflammation but it helps trigger the remodeling cascade. With that thought process in mind, I would not be concerned about dry needling increasing the formation of lipomas. 

With all that being said, I would be comfortable treating that patient. I will be interested on other instructors inputs. 

Dr. Frank Gargano released a great clinically relevant dry needling video on the anti-inflammatory process of dry needling on youtube that I think is worth watching. Here's the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlyQFcD-dOA

Let me know how everything goes and if you have any further questions! 

Dr. Natalie Hawkins, PT, DPT, CIDN 

IDN Foundations Instructor