Propranolol in Capillary Hemangiomas

Infantile hemangiomas are frequent vascular tumors (4 à 10 % of the neonates) and correspond to 100 new cases per year in dermatology consultation of the CHU of Bordeaux. Hemangiomas have a characteristic clinical course marked by early proliferation during 3 to 12 months followed by slow and spontaneous involution from 3 to 7 years. Occasionally, as well as esthetical damages, hemangiomas may impair vital structures, ulcerate, bleed, or cause high-output cardiac failure or significant structural abnormalities. Standard treatments (corticotherapy, interferon, vincristine...) lead to a stagnation of hemangiomas in some cases, but with frequent side effects.

We observed that Propranolol, a beta-blocker usually used in neonates could lead to a decreased in volume of serious haemangiomas of the face (article published in New England Journal of Medicine).

In this study, we proposed to determine the efficiency of 1 month-early treatment of propranolol in neonates aged less than 4 months affected by non alarming hemangioma and not justifying corticotherapy. This is a double blind randomized placebo controlled study of propranolol.

Infants will be recruited from the dermatology consultation of CHU Bordeaux. After verification of eligibility criteria and informed consent of legal surrogates, infants will be randomized to receive either propranolol or either placebo. The infants will be observed during 1 month according to the following visits.