A 7-year follow-up study on untreated deep or mixed facial infantile hemangioma in East-Asian patients: When propranolol was not yet an option.

Abstract

Infantile hemangioma (IH) is a type of benign tumor that develops during infancy and spontaneously involutes after 1year of age. Before the introduction of propranolol in 2008, some patients with IH were instructed to wait for the involution without treatment. This long-term follow-up study was conducted to assess the prognosis of East-Asian children with untreated deep or mixed facial IH. Skin sequelae were assessed by comparing images obtained during the patients' first and last visits in our clinic. Possible factors were assessed for their association with IH prognosis. The mean follow-up time was 7.4years. Among the 48 patients with deep or mixed facial IH, 26 (54%) achieved complete involution without sequelae and 22 encountered various sequelae, including telangiectasia (36.3%), fibrofatty residue (68.2%), and scars (4%). The complete regression rate of deep or mixed IH occurring in the central facial region was significantly lower than for those in the perifacial region (33.3% vs 66.7%, respectively, χ2 , P=0.025). Further, the most common sequelae in this area are fibrofatty residue.