A fat pad (aka haversian gland) is a mass of closely packed fat cells surrounded by fibrous tissue septa. They may be extensively supplied with capillaries and nerve endings.
Examples are:
- Intraarticular fat pads. These are also covered by a layer of synovial cells. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
References
- ^ TheFreeDictionary > Fat pad Citing: Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. 2009
- 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.
- 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.