Hemangiomas, especially those that have gotten very large during the growth phase, may leave behind stretched skin or fibrofatty tissue that may be disfiguring or require future surgical correction. Areas of prior ulceration may leave behind permanent scarring. Additional long-term sequelae stem from the identification of extracutaneous manifestations in association with the IH. For example, a patient with a large facial hemangioma who is found to meet criteria for PHACE syndrome will require potentially ongoing neurologic, cardiac, and/or ophthalmologic monitoring. In cases of IHs that compromise of vital structures, symptoms may improve with involution of the hemangioma. For example, respiratory distress would improve with involution of a space-occupying IH involving the airway and high-output heart failure may lessen with involution of a hepatic hemangioma and ultimately treatment may be tapered or discontinued. In other cases, such as an untreated eyelid hemangioma, resultant amblyopia does not improve with involution of the cutaneous lesion. For these reasons, infants with infantile hemangiomas should be evaluated by an appropriate clinician during the early proliferative phase so that risk monitoring and treatment be individualized and outcomes can be optimized. Terminology
The terminology used to define, describe, and categorize vascular tumors and malformations has changed over time. The term hemangioma was originally used to describe any vascular tumor-like structure, whether it was present at or around birth or appeared later in life. In 1982, Mulliken and Glowacki proposed a new classification system for vascular anomalies which has been widely accepted and adopted by the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies.
Large IHs can leave visible skin changes secondary to significant stretching of the skin or alteration of surface texture. When they interfere with vision, breathing, or threaten significant disfigurement (most notably facial lesions, and in particular, nose and lips), they are usually treated. Medical therapies are most effective when used during the period of most significant hemangioma growth, which corresponds to the first 5 months of life. Ulcerated hemangiomas, a subset of lesions requiring therapy, are usually treated by addressing wound care, pain, and hemangioma growth. Medication
Treatment options for IHs include medical therapies (systemic, intralesional, and topical), surgery, and laser therapy. Prior to 2008, the mainstay of therapy for problematic hemangiomas was oral corticosteroids, which are effective and remain an option for patients in whom beta-blocker therapy is contraindicated or poorly tolerated. Following the serendipitous observation that propranolol, a nonselective beta blocker, is well tolerated and effective for treatment of hemangiomas, the agent was studied in a large, randomized, controlled trial and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this indication in 2014. Oral propranolol is more effective than placebo, observation without intervention, or oral corticosteroids. Propranolol has subsequently become the first-line systemic medical therapy for treatment of these lesions.Since that time, topical timolol maleate in addition to oral propranalol has become a common therapy for infantile hemangiomas. According to a 2018 Cochrane review, both of these therapies have demonstrated beneficial effects in terms of clearance of hemangiomas without an increase in harms.