ABSTRACT
Cellulite is certainly not a serious condition from the medical point of view, but it does represent the most widespread and least tolerated aesthetic complaint among women. The condition is very well known through intense publicity campaigns in the mass media and the cosmetics industry targeted at increasing the market for cosmetic creams, electromedical equipment, pills, and therapeutic fantasies that often lack a scientific basis though they sometimes improve the aesthetic aspect of the problem. Most aesthetic treatments might be compared to a ‘‘coat of white paint’’ painted over a damp patch on the wall. By adding subsequent layers of paint, the wall may improve its appearance, but our medical duty is to eliminate the dampness itself so that the wall may ‘‘recover’’ its good state rather than merely ‘‘seem’’ sound.
