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

BACKGROUND: 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.

OBJECTIVE: 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.

METHODS: 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.

RESULTS: 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.

CONCLUSION: Results of our study suggest that capillary hemangioma has an excellent response to even mild cryosurgery.