Treatment of capillary hemangiomas of early childhood with a new method of cryosurgery.

Abstract

Capillary hemangiomas in young children are difficult to treat. They are a recognized proliferation of benign vascular cells and may be disfiguring because of their predilection for the head and neck. In contrast to an earlier "wait and see" approach to treating capillary hemangiomas in young children, we sought to determine whether these vascular lesions would respond to a new method of cryosurgery. In this trial 19 young patients with 24 hemangiomas were treated with contact cryosurgery at a constant applicator tip temperature of only -32 degrees C. Our study demonstrates that this method, used early in the treatment of capillary hemangiomas, in particular capillary and mixed capillary-cavernous hemangiomas, will yield excellent to good response in terms of complete remission and regression without leaving side effects such as scarring or hypopigmentation. Results of our study suggest that capillary hemangioma has an excellent response to even mild cryosurgery.