Paradoxical lipodystrophic changes due to conventional bovine and highly purified porcine/bovine insulins.

A 78-year-old woman developed marked insulin lipoatrophy due to conventional bovine insulin injected into the upper limbs. Changing to a combination of highly purified porcine/bovine insulins injected into the lower limbs resulted in the opposite effect, namely insulin-induced lipohypertrophy. Use was then made of this effect by injecting the highly purified insulins into the atrophied upper limb injection sites with resultant improvement in these wasted areas over the next 10 months.