Recommendation for a Dermatologist to Treat a Hemangioma

I would highly recommend that you take your daughter to see Dr. Delfanian. His phone number is ###-###-####.

My son has a hemangioma on his neck and when he was 5 months old it ulcerated. I immediately took him to his pediatrician. They unfortunately did not do much to help ease my stress and sent me to a children's dermatologist that I did not care for at all. After doing research myself I contacted Dr. Delfanian by email and he got back to me that day. He met my husband and I at Ridges hospital to look at my son. He taught me how to treat the wound and greatly helped my understand hemangioma's much more. After you meet him you will feel much more educated and empowered to make the best decision possible for your daughter. I have included a bunch of his information for you. I also wanted to let you know that my son is now 2 years old and his hemangioma is almost completely gone on it's own. It use to stick out at least 2 inches and was very red and everyone would notice it right away. Now no one really notices and it is just a slight pinkish color.

Kamiab Delfanian,M.D.
201 E. Nicollet Blvd.
Burnsville, MN 55337
____@____.com
507- ###-###-####
Vascular medicine &vascular anomalies specialist: Trained under Dr.Milton Waner. Treats hemangioma, venous malformation, lymphedema, Klippel trenaunay syndrome, varicose veins and chronic difficult to treat lower extremity vascular wounds.

Minnesota Vascular Medicine and Birthmark Center
14050 Nicollet Ave South
Burnsville, Minnesota 55337
Phone: ###-###-####
Minnesota Vascular Medicine and Birthmark Center (MVM&BC) was formally established in Burnsville, Minnesota on May 15th, 2006. Patients are seen two days a week with vascular diseases consisting of arterial, venous, and lymphatic disorders including vascular anomalies("Birthmarks").

Kamiab Delfanian, MD is the medical director of MVM& BC. Dr. Delfanian is a vascular medicine subspecialist with expertise in vascular birthmarks. He is also on the physician panel of Vascular Birthmark Foundation.

Minnesota Vascular Medicine and Birthmark Center also serves as a regional, national, and international referral center for patients with Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome (KTS).

In addition to collaborating with medical and other health profedssionals in the state of Minnesota, MVM& BC has developed a network of communication with many similar vascular birthmark centers in the country and abroad for patient care and access to necessary medical information and research activity.

Hi J.,

My son also has a strawberry hemangioma on his right eyebrow that began to appear when he was 2 weeks old. Over the next 8 months it just grew, and there isn't really anything you can do to stop that. My pediatrician (who has been in practice for over 20 years) said that he has never seen one that has not gone away on its own.

My son see's Dr. Wood at Children's Specialty Healthcare Clinic - sometimes in Minnetonka and sometimes in St. Paul. He is a pediatric plastic surgeon who deals with Hemangiomas as well as other problems with the head and neck (this same son also has torticollis and plagiocephaly - which is why he is seeing Dr. Wood). Anyways, Dr. Wood is nationally known and recognized for his work, and he thinks that it's possible that my son might need surgery to completely remove the hemangioma, but won't even consider doing anything about it until he is 3-5 years old because it's too dangerous and on the eyebrow, for cosmetic reasons only.

Surgeries and laser treatments are especially "high risk" and dangerous in children under 2, so anyone who would be willing to do surgery for a hemangioma must feel that it is dangering his/her life or development in order to take on the risk - or they are not good doctors.

Although I know your worried about this, I suspect there isn't really anything anyone will do about it over the next couple years. Hemangioma surgery is complicated since your dealing with a cluster of blood vessels - all they do is bleed everywhere when you cut them. You also can't put stitches into them. From what I've read and been told - you can end up with large scarring from the complicated surgery and/or no hair growth at the eyebrow with laser (or both). We didn't want either with our son, so we are waiting it out.

On a side note, I do always worry about it busting open from a fall. This has actually happened once when he was learning to crawl. We have hardwood floors, and he fell forward and the hemangioma burst open. The bleeding was huge and rapid - within a minute or two the hand towel had tons of blood on it. Of course, I rushed him to the ER in a HUGE panic (blood all over his car seat and clothes by the time we got there) and they didn't do ANYTHING except cover it with gauze and a mesh cloth to help it clot. (Nothing! I was SO livid...) When I asked them why they weren't doing anything - they said that they can't. Anything done to it will make it bleed more, so all you can do is cover it while it heals and help the blood clot itself. Later, when I saw the scab, I was shocked at how small the actual little cut was compared to the amount of blood lost - very tiny relative to the size of his hemangioma.

The point is, since your daughter's is on the eyebrow it might burst open (stick to carpeted areas?!?!?), but they really do bleed quite a bit, so your odds of getting anything done about it right away are pretty slim.

Here is a link to a pic of my son after the ER visit - with his gauze.

http://www.slide.com/r/_IEbY1ES1D_bKr3iwUvf_pPr8BnZcLel?v...

And here's a pic of the hemangioma. Note that my son looks pissed in this pic. LOL!

http://www.slide.com/r/7pd0UqUD1D-HSBYDE2zFeV_LhMeDenvH?v...

I generally try to go with recommendations for people in the medical profession and usually find that the good ones are booked in advance. I would try to work with the staff at the doctors' clinics. Let them know that you'd love to be put on a cancellation list. I bet you'll get in way earlier.

J., when my dd (who is now 6 yo) was about your dd's age, she had a hemangioma appear in the same spot as your dd's - her right eyebrow. Over the next few weeks, it grew very rapidly and started growing over her eye. Our ped recommended surgery because it was effecting her eye and would effect her vision eventually. She had it removed at Mpls Children's hospital, but could have had it done outpatient Children's Health West. We felt more comfortable having it done at the hospital, in case something went wrong. Surgery went fine, went quick, no extensive bleeding or problems of any kind. Recovery went just as well. She has a TINY scar right along her eyebrow line that no one even knows about unless I were to point it out. DD doesn't even know it is there (she does know she had surgery, though). I don't remember what doc we saw, but we were 100% happy with everything.

I would make an appt with the derm your ped recommends and if it gets worse over the next several weeks, keep in touch with your ped about what to do and if it is ok to wait. Otherwise call the derm back and see if you can get in sooner, after explaining the situation.

Good luck, it really isn't a big deal and is pretty common (I know it seems like a big deal because it is your baby, but there are much worse things you could be dealing with).

S., mom of 3

my daughter has five external hemangiomas and three internal hemangiomas on her liver. She has seen specialist in Texas, VT, NH, NE, KS and MA. If you are close to the east coast Boston is by far the best Hospital. If you are close to Omaha, Dr. Nelson is really good. You should schedule an appointment with an eye DR to check her vision. Tumors around the eye have potental for complicating vision. If you catch things early enough this can be prevented. My daughter had steriod injections (these were really painful and did not help) She also took an oral steriod for five months (comes with some pretty scary side effects, she is in the >5 percentile for height/weight still). We are just waiting now, she most likely will have surgery on her nose when the hemagiomas have cleared. We are 14months and learning to walk which presents a whole new set of problems, we have already made two ER visits.
Goodluck!

Late response, but I took my baby to Advanced Skin Care Institute in White Bear and was very pleased.

A friend's child had one on her eyelid. They did do laser treatments on it at a young age. Unfortunately I do not know who they saw. I do know they can grow huge very quickly.