After a healthy delivery of her newborn baby girl Alanis, Ana was told that she was born with a small caramel colored birthmark on her arm. Not immediately alarmed by the news, Ana waited for their first appointment with the pediatrician who then referred them to Ana Margarita Duarte, MD, Director of the Division of Dermatology at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
Alanis was diagnosed with an infantile hemangioma, the most common tumors of childhood. Unlike other tumors, infantile hemangiomas have the ability to involute after proliferation. Because of this, care providers often assume that they will disappear without intervention or consequence. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Some infantile hemangiomas develop rapid complications that may result in pain, functional impairment, or permanent disfigurement such as Alanis’.
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital prides itself in being home of The International Birthmark Institute, a comprehensive multi-specialty center of excellence for the evaluation and management of all birthmarks with special expertise in vascular birthmarks or vascular anomalies in newborn babies and children, including hemangiomas and vascular malformations.