Pancreatic panniculitis is a rare skin complication in which subcutaneous fat necrosis occurs in association with pancreatic disorders, most commonly acute or chronic pancreatitis. Erythematous subcutaneous nodules develop on the legs and spontaneously ulcerate or exude an oily substance. A 32-year-old Korean female patient presented with a 2-week-history of tender nodules with erythematous crusts on her left shin. She had a history of alcoholic liver cirrhosis and, 5 weeks earlier, had been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis. The histopathologic findings from a skin biopsy were consistent with lobular panniculitis, without signs of vasculitis, and diffuse fat necrosis. Basophilic calcium deposits were present in the dermis and subcutaneous fat. These findings were suggestive of pancreatic panniculitis. The skin lesion had a chronic course corresponding to repeated exacerbations of the patient’s pancreatitis. Thus, in the differential diagnosis of subcutaneous nodules, clinicians should consider pancreatic panniculitis as a cutaneous manifestation of pancreatic disease.

Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn is a spontaneously regressing disorder of healthy fullterm of postterm infants, characterized by symmetric, firm, erythematous to violaceous sub-cutaneous nodules and plaques. Histopathologically, subcutaneous fat necrosis with granu-lomatous panniculitis and needle-shaped clefts in the cytoplasm of foamy and multinucleated histiocytic giant cells are diagnostic.

We report an uncomplicated case of subcutaneous fat necrosis in a 21-day-old, normally delivered male infant, which developed on the fourth day of life and spontaneously regressed in 4 months.