A Review of the Concept of Weber-Christian Panniculitis With a Report of Five Cases

SUMMARY. —Five patients with Weber‐Christian panniculitis (W.C.P.) are described. These illustrate the great variability of the clinical course of cases to which this diagnosis is applied. In two (one fatal) no aetiological factor was found, one case was considered to be an artefact, one was related to tuberculosis and another was possibly a manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus. It is concluded from a survey of the literature and from these 5 cases that W.C.P. is not nosologically distinct and that present terminology suggesting a single disease entity is undesirable. A purely descriptive term like nodular panniculitis should be used while a search is made for aetiological factors. In some cases these may be found to rest on a vascular basis, possibly the result of an immunological process.