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Infantile hemangiomas are the most common tumors of infancy. Most require no treatment, but treatment is needed if visual or airway obstruction or ulceration arises. Oral corticosteroids are first-line therapy for such troublesome hemangiomas; interferon alfa and vincristine are used less often because of toxicity.
These investigators serendipitously discovered that propranolol effectively treated hemangiomas in two infants who received the drug for cardiac complications while on corticosteroid therapy. One index patient was a 1-month-old infant with a rapidly growing segmental facial hemangioma who had ocular complications and tracheal–esophageal deviation despite oral corticosteroid treatment. Increased cardiac output developed, and propra…