What to do if you have hemangioma in children?

Hemangioma is a common clinical disease. It is a vascular malformation that is most prevalent during infancy and childhood. Pediatric hemangiomas can be treated. Generally speaking, when many parents don’t know what to do, they can actually follow the doctor’s advice and choose the most appropriate treatment plan.

1. The treatment of hemangioma should be determined by the doctor based on the child's age, type of lesion and location of occurrence. Except for rapid development or special growth locations, it is usually advisable to observe for a period of time before taking any action. Currently, the main treatment methods include freezing, laser, and sclerosing agent injection. Radioactive phosphorus and radioactive strontium can also be applied to the surface of the tumor and surgical resection can be performed. Generally, early treatment has good results, a high cure rate, and leaves no traces.

2. Hormone therapy. The cases using this treatment must be strictly selected and limited to infants and young children. It is suitable for those whose hemangiomas grow rapidly; those who have repeated bleeding, ulcers or infections; those whose tumors affect their breathing, swallowing and eating, etc. Prednisone is commonly used, with a dose of 2 to 3 mg/(kg?d), taken orally for 2 to 3 weeks. After the effect is obvious, the dosage is reduced to 1 mg/(kg?d), and then reduced to 0.75 mg/(kg?d).

3. Sclerosant injection: The commonly used drug is 5% sodium morrhuate. Before injecting the sclerosing agent, local infiltration anesthesia or conduction anesthesia is performed around the tumor. Suitable for cavernous hemangioma.

4. For hemangiomas that grow fast, pose a risk of disfigurement, or are large, electrochemotherapy, bleomycin injection, and early surgical resection can be used for treatment. If the resection area is too large, a skin expander can be used locally or copper wire can be used to ligate and block the communicating branches. If the surgical area is large, it can be performed in stages and skin grafting can be performed. The surgery should be performed before the age of 5 to avoid psychological effects on the child.