Acute lipodermatosclerosis in a pendulous abdomen.

A 54-year-old female developed tender, hot, erythematous skin at the apex of a large pendulous abdomen at the same time as she became symptomatic with congestive cardiac failure secondary to respiratory failure. Clinically and histologically the changes in the abdominal-wall skin resembled lipodermatosclerosis, a condition normally seen in the legs secondary to chronic venous insufficiency.