Vascular skin lesions in children: a review of laser surgical and medical treatments

Abstract

Vascular anomalies are a common finding in children. Although most of these lesions are benign, they can be a severe cosmetic problem and cause structural and functional damage to nearby tissues. As a result, physicians are tasked with developing effective treatment options with superior safety profiles. Vascular anomalies may be divided into tumors and malformations. Vascular tumors, such as infantile hemangiomas, typically appear a few months after birth, whereas the majority of vascular malformations, such as port-wine stains, are present at birth. Although these lesions vary in appearance, etiology, and disease course, many are treated in a similar fashion. In this review, we focus on treatment modalities for some of the more-prevalent childhood vascular lesions, including port-wine stains, primary telangiectasias, infantile hemangiomas, pyogenic granulomas, and angiomas.