What is this?
A benign "vascular" spot or tumor that can result in disfiguring or annoying lesion for the functioning of an organ (the eye, as an example, if the angioma is on the eyelid).
How does it manifest?
By a kind of small reddish or purple skin spot or strawberry mass on the face (most common) or in other places of the body, at birth or during the first weeks of life.
It grows up in the first months of life and at age 2 years old the lesion can start diminishing the size and leaving discoloration of the skin. It is called “spontaneous regression”. It can take some years to have a result. It affects more premature babies and little girls.
Are there “easy” therapeutic solutions?
No. An evaluation is needed to judge which therapy is the most appropriate. During the last decades, the use of an “old” and very known drug, the propranolol, showed to be remarkably effective. Nowadays, surgical excision is reserved for special circumstances. The laser treatment has a role in some types of vascular lesions, like Port wine lesions.
