Dr. Komarovsky about hemangioma in newborns

Any tumor in a child causes a state of shock in parents. Therefore, the diagnosis of "hemangioma" sounds like a bolt from the blue. For an explanation of the situation, for advice and recommendations, mothers and fathers often turn to the famous pediatrician of the highest category, TV presenter and author of popular books on children's health, Yevgeny Komarovsky. In this article, we have gathered maximum information, summarizing the disparate answers of a specialist and one of the issues of his program “School of Doctor Komarovsky”, devoted to the issues of hemangioma in newborns.

Hemangioma is a benign tumor. It consists of vascular tissue and usually develops in the baby even in utero. The tumor is visible immediately after birth, so there is usually no problem diagnosing. Slightly less often it is found 2-3 months after the birth of the child.

The prevalence of the problem can be judged by official medical statistics. According to these data, every tenth crumb is born with such a neoplasm.

The causes of hemangioma are quite mysterious and mysterious, in any case, official medicine does not have a definite answer to this question. Version with a violation of the activity of blood vessels in the child during of pregnancy in practice does not hold water. But science does not express other versions. However, indirect factors have been identified, which are considered to be the theoretical prerequisites for the appearance of hemangiomas:

• Mom's age at the time of childbirth "crossed" the 35-year-old frontier.

• The birth of twin-triplets.

• Infectious diseases that a pregnant woman has had in the process of carrying a child.

• Preterm labor, deep prematurity of the child.

• Medications that a woman took in the first trimester of pregnancy, when the internal organs of the child are formed.

• Hormonal failure at mom.

• The prenatal suffering of the child, which became possible as a result of Rh-conflict, hemolytic disease of the newborn.

Hemangiomas are different. The simplest form is a capillary tumor. When it is a tumor has a small size, it looks like a spot of saturated red color. Sometimes it protrudes slightly above the surface of the skin. Such a diagnosis is made of nine out of ten sick children.

Much more difficult is the case with the cavernous hemangioma. With her, the tumor looks like a sponge soaked in blood. This visual effect reflects the entire degree of danger of the tumor - it has cavities filled with blood. In case of minor injury, severe bleeding may occur. Such a neoplasm usually has a varied color - from red to bluish. The most difficult situations are when such a tumor is located in the liver, spleen or brain. Its rupture can be fatal.

Sometimes there is a combined hemangioma, which combines the qualities and attributes of the previous two types of neoplasms.

Most often, the tumor is located outside, on the head, on the face, on the extremities. When the doctor detects an internal hemangioma, as a rule, there are also multiple (more than 4) tumors on the outside of the body.

Yevgeny Komarovsky urges parents not to fall into a stupor and not to sow panic.

But to ignore such a tumor in no case be impossible. If only because the "behavior" of the tumor is completely unpredictable: in a matter of days, it can turn from a small formation the size of a coin into a terrifying tumor the size of a small melon.

A doctor who can give an accurate answer to the question of what to do next is called a pediatric surgeon. Errors in diagnosis, according to Evgeny Komarovsky, are practically excluded, since the nature and location of the tumor is determined by palpation and visual assessment of color.

If there is a question about surgical intervention, the current level of development of medicine will allow to learn about a lot of additional information about hemangioma, the main diagnostic methods in this situation will be MRI, Doppler, as well as ultrasound.

According to Komarovsky, parents should not be intimidated if the surgeon sends them with the child to an oncologist, a dermatologist, a hematologist and an infectious disease specialist. Their findings are also important for making decisions about surgical removal of the tumor.

However, you should not resist and refuse surgery if the surgeon has determined that the hemangioma is in a place where frequent injury is possible, and accordingly, there is a risk of extensive bleeding.

If the tumor is located next to any anatomical hole, it also makes sense to remove it until the tumor has grown and has not blocked what nature is supposed to be open (mouth, nasal passages, anus, auricle, etc.).

Yevgeny O. emphasizes that now is the 21st century, and medicine offers not only a scalpel. Hemangioma can be removed with a laser, using sclerotherapy, cryodestruction, electrocoagulation.

In addition, doctors in some cases prescribe hormonal treatments, some of which the child takes orally, and some do in the form of injections directly into the affected skin. The best effect such therapy gives in the first half of the child's life. However, doctors do not give an absolute guarantee that only with the help of hormones can hemangioma be cured. With hormone therapy, the child should not be vaccinated with live vaccines.

For more on this, see the transfer of Dr. Komarovsky.