Oral Propranolol Therapy for Benign Capillary Hemangiomas in a Series of Adult and Pediatric Patients

Abstract

Objective: To describe outcomes of oral propranolol therapy in a series of adult and pediatric patients diagnosed with benign capillary hemangioma of the head and neck.
 Methods:
 Design: Prospective Case Series
 Setting: Tertiary Government Hospital
 Participants: Ten (10) patients representing all patients clinically diagnosed with benign capillary hemangioma of the head and neck, enrolled in the study from 2012 to 2015.
 Results: Two (2) adults and eight (8) children were enrolled in the study. Although a decrease in lesion size was observed in half of the participants starting at three months, only one (1) attained complete resolution of the lesion-- a 12-year-old girl with hemangioma of the right parotid gland that attained clinical resolution of symptoms after four months of treatment. The remaining nine out of ten (9/10) participants did not attain complete clinical resolution; but there was a decrease in lesion size in four (4) of these participants. For the remaining five (5) participants, there was neither a decrease nor an increase in lesion size. Altogether, of the two adult participants, only one responded to therapy, while only 4 out of 8 pediatric participants responded to therapy. There were no noticeable differences between adult and pediatric patients in terms of resolution and plateau. Aside from mild bradycardia expected with propranolol, no adverse reactions were observed during the course of treatment.
 Conclusion: Although half of our participants responded to oral propranolol therapy, whether these observations may be attributable to oral propranolol alone cannot be concluded.
 Keywords: hemangioma, capillary; hemangioma; propranolol administration, oral; propranolol