Hemangiomas are benign reddish lumps that affect up to 10 percent of newborn babies.
The lumps consist of clusters of blood vessels and skin cells, and usually disappear naturally by the time the child is about a year old.

80 percent of hemangiomas appear on the head or neck.  However, in some cases a lump that continues to grow close to the nose or an eye can block breathing passages or harm vision and cause developmental disabilities. Hemangiomas in internal organs such as the liver or the respiratory system may endanger the infant’s life.

Because hemangiomas consist of large numbers of blood vessels, they cannot be removed by surgery. To date, newborns affected by the condition have received steroids to shrink the lump.

Several months ago a team of researchers in the USA discovered by coincidence that a drug called Propranolol, used to treat hypertension and irregular heartbeat, effectively reduced the lumps in three months with few or no side effects.

Following this new revelation, Meyer’s Children’s Hospital at Rambam Health Care Campus has set up a new clinic specializing in the treatment of hemangiomas. The clinic’s inter-departmental team of doctors consists of pediatricians, cardiologists, and plastic surgeons. The newborn patient is examined by the team of specialists, who plan the treatment according to the baby’s condition. Prof. Amos Etzioni, director of Meyer’s children’s Hospital, explains that about two hemangioma patients are treated at Rambam monthly. 

The advantage of the new treatment is that the problem can be treated at a very early stage and complications are prevented at the very beginning of the development of the hemangioma.