Background: Congenital hemangiomas (CHs) are fully developed at birth and are classified into subtypes based on subsequent involution pattern: rapidly involuting CH (RICH), partially involuting CH (PICH) and noninvoluting CH (NICH).
Objectives: To investigate the clinical features and understand disease entity of CH to distinguish it from other hemangiomas.
Methods: A retrospective study of the medical records of CH patients in our vascular anomalies clinic from 2008 to 2018.
Results: Of the 99 CH patients (33 RICH; 28 PICH; and 38 NICH), the ratio of female to male was 1.1:1. All of them presented a single lesion with a mean diameter 4.17cm (range, 1-16cm). The most frequently involved areas were trunk (35.4%), followed by lower extremities (30.3%) and head and neck (17.2%). Red-stippled faint blue plaque (35.4%) was the most presented feature, followed by bluish gray patch (33.3%). Telangiectasia and peripheral halo were observed in 57 (57.6%) and 43 (43.4%) cases, respectively. Ten patients (10.1%) suffered from pain and/or tenderness. The microscopy of 49 cases showed quite variable degree of lobulation of capillaries surrounded by fibrosis, interlobular thick-walled large vessels and/or centrilobular irregular and often stellate vessels. The diagnosis of CH was confirmed by negative GLUT-1 staining in all 49 cases.
Conclusion: It provides useful information about the characteristics of CH, which should be differentiated from infantile hemangioma.