"The disease was discovered by its eponym Francis Xavier Dercum (1856-1931), an American neurologist, in 1892 3,4. Interestingly, in his seminal paper, he described the lesions as “irregular and even capricious in these cases, but there is, in addition, another important factor to be remembered, and that is: that at some time or other, the enlargement is accompanied by pain", a description which remains characteristic of the disease to this day 3,4."