Will propranolol become the mainstay of treatment for symptomatic infantile hemangiomas (IH)?
Background: IH are the most common tumor of infancy, affecting four to 10 percent of infants. Spontaneous involution is the expected outcome, but nearly 10 percent cause symptoms warranting early therapy. Propranolol was serendipitously found to hasten IH involution, with fewer side effects than traditional corticosteroid therapy, in an index case and 10 additional cases reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (2008;358:2649-2651).
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February 2010Study Design: Observational case series of 32 patients, including previously reported 11.
Setting: Children’s Hospital, Pellegrin Hospital and Saint Andre Hospital, Bordeaux, France; Purpan Hospital, Toulouse, France; Strasbourg Hospital, Strasbourg, France; Fort de France Hospital, Fort de France, France.