Oral Propranolol Therapy in the Management of Infantile Cutaneous Haemangiomas.

Infantile Haemangiomas is one of the commonest childhood tumours. Several modes of treatment are available including observation only. Recently propranolol has been used as first line therapy in various reports. We present here a prospective study of 30 patients of Infantile Heamangiomas in which propranolol was used with an aim to study the dose standarization, efficacy & safety profile of the drug. All the patients had pretreatment cardiovascular, respiratory and investigative work up and then started on oral propranolol therapy at a dosage of 2-3mg/kg/day in two divided doses for a mean duration of 7.8 months (range 6-9 months). All the patients responded to the treatment by showing reduction in size, colour changes in the lesion and resolution of ulceration. In maximum 22 (73.33%) patients there was >50% reduction i size, 6(20%) patients had complete resolution of the lesion and only 2 (6.66%) had <25% reduction in size. All 4(100%) patients with ulceration had complete healing of the ulcer. There was no major side effect of the drug except mild self limiting diarrhoea in 2(6.66%) patients. We conclude that oral propranolol should be used as first line therapy in all infants with Infantile Cutaneous Haemangiomas at an early stage when response is good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]