Fat pad

A fat pad (aka haversian gland) is a mass of closely packed fat cells surrounded by fibrous tissue septa.[1] They may be extensively supplied with capillaries and nerve endings.[1]

Examples are:

  • Intraarticular fat pads. These are also covered by a layer of synovial cells.[1] A fat pad sign is an elevation of the anterior and posterior fat pads of the elbow joint, and suggests the presence of an occult fracture.
  • Buccal fat pad can be seen in nursing babies.[1]
  • The fat pad of the labia majora, which can be used as a graft, often as a so-called "Martius labial fat pad graft", which can be used, for example, in urethrolysis.[2]
  • Fat pads within the heels which when they get inflamed can cause heel pad syndrome
  • The pads under the balls of the feet.
  • The eight pairs of focal fat pads running from the armpit to the groin found in all lean women and men in a curved linear arrangement identical to the mammary ridge lines seen in human embryos.[3]
  1. ^ a b c d TheFreeDictionary > Fat pad Citing: Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. 2009
  2. ^ Carey JM, Chon JK, Leach GE (April 2003). "Urethrolysis with Martius labial fat pad graft for iatrogenic bladder outlet obstruction". Urology. 61 (4 Suppl 1): 21–25. doi:10.1016/S0090-4295(03)00117-1. PMID 12657357.
  3. ^ Teplica D, Kovich G, Srock J, Whitaker R, Jeffers E, Wagstaff DA (October 2021). "Newly Identified Gross Human Anatomy: Eight Paired Vestigial Breast Mounds Run along the Embryological Mammary Ridges in Lean Adults". Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Global Open. 9 (10): e3863. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000003863. PMC 8517303. PMID 34667697.