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Classification and ultrasound findings of vascular anomalies in pediatric age: the essential

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Abstract

Proper nomenclature is a major obstacle in understanding and managing vascular anomalies. Often the same term is used for totally different types of lesions or, conversely, the same lesion may be labeled with different terms. Although in recent times there has been a greater understanding of the problems concerning vascular anomalies, episodes of improper use of terminology still remain. The aim of this article, starting from the most recent classification of vascular anomalies, is to provide a clinical and instrumental approach to identifying these lesions and to converge towards a clear and unambiguous terminology that must become univocal among the various operators to avoid diagnostic misunderstandings and therapeutic errors.

Sommario

L’esatta terminologia è stata il maggior ostacolo alla comprensione e alla gestione delle anomalie vascolari. Spesso lo stesso termine è stato usato per lesioni totalmente diverse o, viceversa, la medesima lesione è stata etichettata con termini diversi. Nonostante in tempi recenti vi sia stata una maggiore comprensione delle problematiche riguardanti le anomalie vascolari, ancora permangono episodi di uso improprio della terminologia. Scopo di questo articolo, partendo dalla più recente classificazione delle anomalie vascolari, è fornire un approccio clinico-strumentale a queste lesioni e convergere verso una terminologia chiara ed univoca che deve diventare comune fra i vari operatori per evitare fraintendimenti diagnostici e errori terapeutici.

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Notes

  1. Classification proposed in 1990. The scheme was never published directly by the author but subsequently presented by Mulliken et al. [56,57,58].

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Correspondence to Francesco Esposito.

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Esposito, F., Ferrara, D., Di Serafino, M. et al. Classification and ultrasound findings of vascular anomalies in pediatric age: the essential. J Ultrasound 22, 13–25 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40477-018-0342-1

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