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Parents are often frightened when faced with an unknown medical condition, especially with such a strange name. This is what happens when you have a diagnosis of hemangiomas in newborns.
What is Hemangioma?
The hemangioma is a spot that appears on the baby’s skin after a few weeks of birth and has a reddish color. Hemangiomas in newborns are usually of the flat type and are considered congenital.
Until the first year of life, hemangiomas in newborns tend to increase in size. As the child gets older it can decrease and even disappear and for the parents’ tranquility it is a disease without great risks to the child’s health.
Characteristics and Appearance of Hemangiomas
It is common for parents to come to the office asking the specialist about the spot that the child has on a certain part of the body. But what is hemangioma anyway ?
And the answer is: it is a benign tumor and it is part of vascular anomalies , they are red and flat-looking patches, over time their characteristics may change, increasing in size and thickening.
Evolution of Hemangioma
As they appear, they also disappear over time, on average they appear after a few weeks of the child’s birth and continue to grow until one year of age. In this phase they are inactive, in the last phase they start to shrink by themselves. When the child is five years old the probability is that the hemangioma has disappeared .
Hemangiomas in newborns appear on the skin in the form of reddish or purplish patches, with the appearance of a compact, solid tumor , with a small bump on the skin.
In addition to the skin, it can also be found in the internal organs , being more common in the liver, kidneys and spine. In these cases, it is recommended to perform an MRI to monitor the problem and confirm the diagnosis.
Does this type of tumor cause symptoms?
This type of anomaly on the skin, has no symptoms and the diagnosis is made in the pediatrician’s office . It usually presents in several parts of the body, but they are more pronounced in the neck or head.
Causes
The causes of the appearance of hemangioma are still being studied by science, even knowing that it has genetic characteristics, it originates from the malfunction
of cells, with an imbalance in the formation of the vascular system in the first weeks of pregnancy.
What happens is that the embryonic cell divides ahead of time, so the capillary blood vessels spread on the surface of the skin, giving characteristics to the lesion. Generally, the lesion does not appear soon after birth, but it appears in the first month after birth, the condition usually worsens until the first year of life and then improves on its own throughout childhood.
There are still no exact reports in Brazil on cases of hemangiomas in newborns, but studies report that these cases are between three to ten children in every hundred. It also appears in studies that this type of tumor affects more girls and premature babies.
They also declare that girls are more predisposed to the anomaly than boys. The reason is that they have a greater amount of hormones in the body, which allows for a greater incidence of failure in the division of cells.
As for premature babies, the vascular formation is interrupted by early birth and in this way the natural process is interrupted, giving opportunity for the appearance of tumors in a flat way.
Child Health Risks?
There is no risk to the child’s health because it is a benign tumor and there is also no possibility of becoming a cancer in the future. But some cases, where hemangiomas in newborns require special care depending on the location of the newborn .
Some hemangiomas, depending on the location in which they are found, bleed, incapacitating the performance of certain activities, another problem is when the lesion occurs in the eye region and ends up impairing the vision , or in the nose region, making it difficult for the child to breathe.
Treatment of Hemangioma
The most suitable treatment for hemangioma is to treat it as soon as possible from the first month of life, so that in the future, the child does not suffer from possible damages that may arise. Generally, in the case of lesions in the initial phase, treatment is carried out with medications at the site of the injury.
In more advanced stages of great growth, treatment with corticosteroids or propranolol is indicated , these medications are generally used to reduce the lesions that have grown a lot and to control others so that they are inactive, inhibiting their growth. If a more invasive process is needed, laser treatment or surgery is indicated.
More Delicate Cases
In the most severe cases of hemangiomas in newborns, surgery is indicated as a treatment, especially when there are complications when the lesion hinders the passage of air, impairing the respiratory tract or when it blocks the vision, making it difficult to see or even when it impairs hearing. Another very problematic region is the diaper region, because of its friction, the lesions bleed frequently.
The important thing is not to medicate the child on your own, ask the pediatrician for guidance so that he can refer a specialist to accompany the child . Only the specialized doctor can correctly analyze and diagnose the lesion and advise on the best medication for the case.
Generally the hemangioma is curable and treatment is recommended with the excessive growth of the tumor, the appearance can be frightening and even represent something serious, but remember that it is a congenital anomaly and that it has no risk to your child’s health. Best of all, there is no likelihood that such an injury will progress to skin cancer.
See Also: Most Common Skin Diseases in Women
My name is Dr. Alexis Hart I am 38 years old, I am the mother of 3 beautiful children! Different ages, different phases 16 years, 12 years and 7 years. In love with motherhood since always, I found it difficult to make my dreams come true, and also some more after I was already a mother.
Since I imagined myself as a mother, in my thoughts everything seemed to be much easier and simpler than it really was, I expected to get pregnant as soon as I wished, but it wasn’t that simple. The first pregnancy was smooth, but my daughter’s birth was very troubled. Joana was born in 2002 with a weight of 2930kg and 45cm, from a very peaceful cesarean delivery but she had already been born with congenital pneumonia due to a broken bag not treated with antibiotics even before delivery.
