Objective: Infantile hemangiomas are the most common vascular tumors in childhood. Although spontaneous regression provides an advantage in clinical follow-up; treatment is required in %10-20 of the patients due to complications it creates depending on the location. In the study, it was aimed to determine the rate of benefit from propranolol treatment and the effect of single or multiple involvement on prognosis in patients who were started on propranolol treatment and were screened for internal organ involvement.

Material and Methods: The demographic characteristics of 60 patients who were admitted to our center for infantile hemangioma between 2015 and 2018 and were started on oral propranolol therapy, along with the hemangioma size at the time of admission, during follow-up and at the last control , treatment indications , treatment durations, treatment responses and pre-treatment cardiac evaluation results were evaluated.

Results: Thirty-seven (61.7%) of the patients were female, the median age of recognition of lesions was 3 months, and the median age of initiation of treatment was 5 months. The average follow-up period was 21 months and it was found that propranonol treatment was given for an average of 8 months. The most frequently %26.7 compared head of localized facial hemangioma was observed. Hemangiomas were mostly superficial and localized. The mean hemangioma size was 12.3 cm2, and the median was 3.50 cm2. The smallest lesion was 0.25 cm2 and the largest lesion was 225 cm2. While 43 patients (%71.6) had an odd number of lesions, 17 patients (%28.3) had two or more lesions. In our study, there were patients with at most three lesions in different localizations. Multifocal hemangioma was not observed. Complication incidence rate was %33.3 and bleeding was the most common complication with 12 patients. The most common treatment was started due to the cosmetic concern of the family (%30). Response to treatment in 15 patients treated according to unresponsiveness or minimal regression (<%25) and response was seen in 45 patients over %25. When the electrocardiography results of the patients before routine treatment in our hospital and echocardiography results in the case of risk factors were evaluated, no pathology that would prevent the patients to receive propranolol treatment was found.

Conclusion: Infantile hemangiomas can be seen in various localizations of the body often in the scalp, neck and face. This study on the efficacy of propranolol treatment of multi-involvement showed that single localization or multiple localization involvement of the hemangioma had no effect on treatment response. 

Keywords: Childhood, Infantile hemangioma, Prognosis, Propranolol, Vascular anomalies