[Subcutaneous fat necrosis of the newborn].

Subcutaneous fat necrosis presents as red-to-bluish, indolent, well-circumscribed, subcutaneous nodules and plaques, unusually in healthy infants. Histologically, a lobular panniculitis with a mixed inflammatory infiltrate is seen. Characteristic crystalloid structures can be found within some of the lipocytes and, most prominently, within macrophages. This rarely diagnosed skin disease is harmless and self-limited, yet the associated hypercalcaemia has a high complication rate.