Review of the Treatment of Periocular Infantile Hemangiomas With Beta Blockers

Infantile hemangioma affects roughly 1% to 3% of term infants and 4% to 10% of all live births, making the condition an often-encountered entity by the pediatrician, ophthalmologist, and dermatologist. Although infantile hemangiomas can occur in any child, it has been noted to have a predilection for females, Caucasians, low–birth weight infants, premature infants, twin births, and advanced maternal age. In addition, it has been associated with prenatal procedures including amniocentesis and chorionic villous sampling. Although our understanding of the biology of these tumors is evolving rapidly, there is a well-understood natural history of these tumors including an early proliferative phase, a stable phase lasting months, followed by spontaneous involution.