Patients taking oral propranolol may develop IH ulceration

Infantile haemangioma (IH) ulceration may occur in some patients receiving oral propranolol, reports a study, noting independent risk factors for such condition.

“Some patients with IH still develop ulcerations during oral propranolol, but these IH ulcerations have not been systematically studied,” according to the researchers.

A total of 470 patients with IH who received oral propranolol and 51 patients with nonintervention IH ulceration were included in this retrospective study conducted at one tertiary referral centre. Of these, 24 (5.1 percent) developed IH ulceration during oral propranolol treatment.

The median age at the discovery of IH ulceration was 3.9 months in the IH ulceration group following initiation of oral propranolol. This was much later than the 2.0 months in the nonintervention IH ulceration group (p=0.013).

In multivariate analysis, mixed IH (odds ratio [OR], 5.620, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.419‒22.265), indeterminate IH (OR, 8.219, 95 percent CI, 1.560‒43.305), and segmental IH (OR, 22.806, 95 percent CI, 2.157‒241.028) independently predicted IH ulceration after oral propranolol initiation.

On the other hand, protective factors included IH on the trunk (OR, 0.063, 95 percent CI, 0.007‒0.580) and extremity (OR, 0.016, 95 percent CI, 0.001‒0.289).

The study was limited by its single-centre retrospective design.