Multiple Hemangiomas Showing Certain Malignant Characteristics in an Infant: Report of a Case

Abstract

A survey of the literature has convinced us that the occurrence of multiple hemangiomas in various organs is not uncommon. Jaffe (1), in 1929, reviewed the literature and collected about twenty cases, to which he added one of his own. The majority occurred in adults; very few were found in children. Wollstein (2), in 1931, reported a case of malignant hemangiomas in an infant, the organs involved being the lung, skin, bronchi, pancreas, intestine, suprarenal gland, prevertebral fat, and sympathetic ganglion. She collected six cases of multiple hemangiomas in children, in which the lungs were not involved. The appearance of hemangiomas in the lung in combination with other sites seems to be rather rare. Under the designation angioma simplex Stamm (3) described multiple hemangiomas in a four-months-old child, involving both lungs, skin, muscles, right vocal cord, ovaries, small intestine, and cerebral cortex. Ramdohr (4) reported the case of a new-born infant who had tumors on the inferior maxilla and multiple nodules, which he called angiosarcoma, in the lungs, kidney and skin Topfer (5) described hemangiomas in the skin, lungs, intestines, and liver of a two-months-old infant. These tumors he diagnosed as simple angiomas with multiple capillary ectasias. Jaffe's patient was an infant of eight months, with hemangiomas of the skin, thyroid, lungs, leptomeninges, intestines, the anterior roots of the cervical nerves, and the dura mater of the spinal cord.