Long-term adverse effects of intramuscular oil injection

Description

A 33-year-old male former bodybuilder presented with painful deformities located to his arms. Roughly a decade ago, he had injected liquid paraffin into his biceps and triceps as a shortcut to achieve muscular enhancement. Today, some of the oil has descended to the forearms, leaving him with painful swellings (paraffinomas) (figure 1) and paraesthesia. MRI revealed localised intramuscular distribution of liquid paraffin in the upper arm muscles (figure 2) and diffuse and localised subcutaneous distribution in the forearms. The patient is currently reviewed regularly as an outpatient and is still able to work as an engineer. A careful history has not revealed any overt systemic complications related to the injections and, so far, he has not required active treatment for his condition.

Figure 1

Muscular hypertrophy and swellings (arrows) after liquid paraffin injection.

Figure...

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