Clinical and Laboratory Observation
Efficacy of Propranolol in Hepatic Infantile Hemangiomas with Diffuse Neonatal Hemangiomatosis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.04.003Get rights and content

We report the rapid and dramatic efficacy of propranolol in 8 infants with infantile hepatic hemangiomas. The degree of response varied from a significant improvement to a complete resolution of hepatic lesions. Heart failure and hypothyroidism resolved, and hepatomegaly decreased. No side-effects of the drug were noted.

Section snippets

Methods

We identified 8 infants with IHH and diffuse neonatal hemangiomatosis who were seen at 5 different institutions in France and Germany. The recorded information was collected from the medical charts.

Characteristics of the Patients

There were 4 girls and 4 boys aged 0.5 to 10 months. Five were premature. All had cutaneous lesions that appeared soon after birth. Of the 8 patients, 4 had multifocal hepatic lesions (4 to 20 lesions), and 4 had diffuse lesions (more than 20) (Figure, A). Lesions measured from 0.8 to 6.8 cm. Hepatomegaly was noted in 5 patients. Liver tests were measured for patient 7 only and were within normal ranges. Heart failure with high cardiac output and elevated thyroid stimulating hormone revealing

Discussion

The efficacy of propranolol in the treatment of cutaneous hemangiomas has been previously described.3, 4 Infants with subglottic hemangiomas, who were resistant to other established medical treatments were successfully treated with propranolol.5, 6 The efficacy of propranolol on hepatic hemangiomas has recently been reported in a single case.7 In our series of 8 infants, propranolol was effective in all patients. The dramatic improvement observed in our series cannot be attributed to

References (12)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

View full text