Propranolol treatment for infantile hemangioma

Recently, propranolol has been proposed as a new, highly effective therapy for infantile hemangioma. We report a case series of 34 patients treated with propranolol between May 2010 and June 2013, and evaluate the age at therapy initialization, hemangioma locations, tumor types, and treatment outcomes. The mean age at initial treatment was 5 months (range, 10 days to 19 months). The mean duration of treatment was 8.2 months (range, 3-16 months). The mean age at therapy completion was 12.9 months (range, 7-32 months). The propranolol was administered at a dose was 0.5 mg.kg^-1.day^-1 that was increased to 2 mg-kg^-1.day^-1 with monitoring of vital signs and blood glucose levels. This treatment regimen demonstrated excellent outcomes in 13 patients, good outcomes in 16, fair outcomes in 5, and poor outcomes in no patient. In particular, of the 24 patients who began therapy at the age of 6 months, excellent or good outcomes were obtained in 23. Hemangioma and tumor type showed no significant effect on the outcome. We found that propranolol was effective in treating infantile hemangioma with few side effects, and that early initiation of treatment before the age of 6 months increased efficacy.