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- Published on: 24 October 2020
- Published on: 24 October 2020Necrosis of infantile haemangioma is more likely related to natural history rather than to propranolol therapy
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We appreciated the Images in paediatrics ‘Necrosis of infantile haemangioma with propranolol therapy’ by Grech and colleagues1. Nevertheless, we take exception to the Authors’ statement that necrosis is due to propranolol induced-involution for several reasons: first of all, the infant was not receiving a full-dose medication (1.5 mg/kg/day) when propranolol should be given at minimum 2 mg/kg/day. Furthermore, the milestone study by Léauté-Labrèz et al showed that a daily regimen of 3 mg/kg is safe and effective in reducing haemangiomas in a cohort of 456 infants2. We do believe that considering the low dose and the proliferative phase the infant was in3, necrosis was most likely due to natural evolution of the haemangioma than drug-induced involution. The authors do not give precise measurements of the scalp lesion before and during treatment, so it is not clear how much the lesion diminished in size. In view of previous considerations, it is difficult to rule out that the lesion might just have followed its natural course. As a matter of fact, both prematurity and female gender are well known risk factors associated with ulceration4.As the authors properly underline, propranolol therapy is the treatment of choice for infantile haemangioma (IH) and adverse effects as hypoglycemia, hypotension and bradycardia are widely known. Ulceration is the most common complication of IH and so that it could be even considered an indication to continue rather than...Conflict of Interest:
None declared.