Successful treatment of infantile haemangiomas of the orbit with propranolol.

BACKGROUND: Propranolol is a novel therapeutic agent in the treatment of cutaneous infantile haemangiomas. We assessed the effect of propranolol therapy in infantile haemangiomas of the orbit.

METHODS: A case series of four patients with orbital infantile haemangiomas were referred for management in our tertiary referral hospitals. Two of the patients had inadequate responses to prior corticosteroid therapy. One of the patients was commenced on propranolol at 2.5 years of age when the lesion was not in the proliferative phase. This represented the first case report of propranolol treatment for infantile haemangioma outside infancy. The other three children were in their infancy when propranolol was commenced. The patients were treated with oral propranolol.

RESULTS: All patients had significant improvement in their physical appearance, ocular examination findings and size of their lesions on radiological evaluation. No side-effects of propranolol treatment were observed.

CONCLUSIONS: Propranolol is a promising treatment against infantile haemangiomas in the orbit, not only in infants but also in an older child with a stable lesion.