How to properly evaluate for hemangioma?

Hemangioma is the most common benign tumor in infants and children, with a population incidence of about 4-5%. Hemangioma is a multidisciplinary concern of pediatric surgery, internal medicine, dermatology, oncology, plastic surgery, etc. The Ministry of Health has included it as one of the 26 major birth defect surveillance diseases. In 1996, the International Society for the Study of Vascular Lesions (ISSVA) improved the classification of vascular diseases and divided them into two categories: hemangioma and vascular malformation: hemangioma is characterized by cell proliferation, including infantile hemangioma, congenital hemangiomas are characterized by cell proliferation, including infantile hemangiomas, congenital hemangiomas, plexiform hemangiomas, etc.; vascular malformations are abnormalities in vascular morphogenesis, including simple vascular malformations, arteriovenous malformations, lymphatic vascular malformations, etc. Among them, infantile hemangioma (IH) is the most common type of vascular disease and should be differentiated from vascular malformations. IH is the most common type of vascular disease and has a well-defined natural course of proliferation, stabilization to regression. It may or may not usually appear postnatally, with the earliest lesions appearing as congested, abrasion-like or capillary-dilated patches. This is followed by a rapid proliferative phase, usually occurring 5.5 to 7.5 weeks postnatally, and a proliferative phase within 3 months postnatally, when the tumor can reach 80% of its final size. After the early proliferative phase, proliferation slows down, and the late proliferative phase occurs between 6 and 9 months, eventually fading away after several years. The diagnosis of IH can be made mainly based on the time of appearance of the tumor, proliferation characteristics, and clinical features, and partly requires imaging examinations (mainly ultrasonography and, if necessary, enhanced MRI or CT) to aid in the diagnosis. Ultrasonography is an important non-invasive adjunct for the diagnosis, hemodynamic evaluation, and efficacy assessment of IH. Enhanced CT/MRI and other imaging examinations play an important role in clarifying the scope of IH and evaluating the systemic organ involvement. At the same time, multiple hemangiomas and hemangioma-related syndromes involve multiple departments such as pediatrics, ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology, which require multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment. Early risk assessment of IH Although the incidence of IH is high, it can regress on its own and most of them do not leave significant sequelae, so most IH do not require therapeutic intervention. However, there are still some IH with a series of complications that can affect the aesthetics, function and even the life of the child. 1, bleeding, ulceration: It is easy to occur in proliferative, larger, surface erosion or post-traumatic IH, especially in easily traumatized areas and skin folds, such as vulva, ear, nose, lips, neck, axilla, elbow and N fossa areas, etc. Some of them will be secondary to infection. 2, scar: a few IH, even if they fade on their own, form a scar after fading, which affects the beauty. 3.Vision impact, airway or external ear canal obstruction: Angiomas occurring in eyelids may form obstructive amblyopia or astigmatism; subsonic angiomas may form airway obstruction; sometimes skin angiomas in the neck may also cause similar obstruction; nasal angiomas in newborns may sometimes form airway obstruction or milk sucking obstruction; external ear canal angiomas may affect hearing in the short term. 4. Systemic effects: deep giant hemangiomas, very numerous small hemangiomas (rare) or visceral hemangiomas with consumptive thrombocytopenia and coagulation disorders. Multiple hemangiomas occur in multiple organs and there is a high mortality rate with extensive organ involvement. Different IH require a combination of history, clinical presentation, and imaging to determine whether it is a high-risk hemangioma and thus determine the treatment plan. According to the I.J. Frieden recommendations, IH can be classified into 3 risk classes. For high-risk IH, treatment should be started as early as possible, preferably at 4 weeks of life or earlier, and an optimal treatment outcome can be achieved if treatment is given early. The choice of treatment plan and long-term monitoring of the condition The treatment of IH includes: follow-up observation, topical topical drug therapy (timolol, carteolol, imiquimod, etc.), local restraint therapy, local injection therapy (glucocorticoids, anhydrous ethanol, polyglaucine, pinyamycin, etc.), pulsed dye laser therapy, systemic therapy (propranolol, glucocorticoids), electrochemical therapy, surgical excision etc. The recommended treatment principles for IH: 1. IH has the characteristic of self-resolving and most of them do not have serious sequelae after regression, so most children do not need treatment. 2. The relatively appropriate treatment should be selected based on a comprehensive assessment of their risk level and whether they are in the proliferative phase. Treatment options for different risk levels of IH: hemangiomas with high risk level may cause complications such as ulceration, disfiguring damage, functional damage or structural changes of important tissues and organs; hemangiomas in the proliferative stage may also increase from low risk level to high risk level in a very short period of time. Therefore, whether or not to treat hemangioma must balance the efficacy of the treatment with the possible adverse effects of the treatment. Patients with IH should be treated with careful differential diagnosis and correct classification, and strive to achieve the best outcome with the most cost-effective and reasonable treatment. It is also worth noting that the process of IH growth and regression is several years long and the disease is in a constant process of change. If the tumor continues to grow or develops complications such as ulcers during the treatment of moderate-risk IH, a high-risk IH treatment plan should be followed; if the tumor grows rapidly, a moderate-risk IH treatment plan should be followed. Therefore, long-term monitoring is needed during the treatment process to continuously evaluate the disease and judge the efficacy and adverse effects of the regimen in a timely manner for the purpose of long-term management of IH. IH is a common tumor in infants, how to correctly diagnose IH early and assess the risk, and choose the appropriate timing and treatment method is important for the physical and mental health of the children.