Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2025 Jul 18;19(1):352.
doi: 10.1186/s13256-025-05422-9.

Atypical development and swift resolution of an ulcerated hemangioma: a case report

Konstantine Chakhunashvili  1   2 , Eka Kvirkvelia  3 , Davit G Chakhunashvili  4   5
Affiliations
Case Reports

Atypical development and swift resolution of an ulcerated hemangioma: a case report

Konstantine Chakhunashvili et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Background: Infantile hemangiomas are considered as the most common benign vascular tumors in pediatric patients. Ulceration is one of the most frequent complications that typically occur at 2-3 months after birth.

Case presentation: A Caucasian Georgian male infant started to develop a hemangioma at 5 days old. At 3 weeks old, a pediatrician diagnosed it, and the patient was referred to a dermatologist. A week after starting initial treatment, at 4 weeks of age, the hemangioma ulcerated. Despite changing the initial treatment, the ulceration worsened. At 6 weeks old, topical timolol and mupirocin were initiated, leading to complete healing within 4 weeks. Timolol is still being applied, and follow-up visits showed no further ulceration.

Conclusion: Although the exact cause of the unusual ulcer development is unknown, we advise physicians to avoid prescribing topical ointments that have not been proven effective and safe for treating hemangioma.

Keywords: Infantile hemangioma; Mupirocin; Timolol; Ulceration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient’s legal guardian for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. Competing interests: There are no potential competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Treatment process of the ulcerated hemangioma. A Baseline, B 1 week after treatment was initiated, C 2 weeks after treatment was initiated, D 3 weeks after treatment was initiated, E 4 weeks after treatment was initiated, mupirocin was discontinued at this stage, F 8 weeks after treatment was initiated
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Kowalska M, Dębek W, Matuszczak E. Infantile hemangiomas: an update on pathogenesis and treatment. J Clin Med. 2021;10(20):4631. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cheng CE, Friedlander SF. Infantile hemangiomas, complications and treatments. Semin Cutan Med Surg. 2016;35(3):108–16. - PubMed
    1. Tiemann L, Hein S. Infantile hemangioma: a review of current pharmacotherapy treatment and practice pearls. J Pediatr Pharmacol Ther. 2020;25(7):586–99. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Luca AC, Miron IC, Trandafir LM, Cojocaru E, Pădureţ IA, Trandafirescu MF, Iordache AC, Ţarcă E. Morphological, genetic and clinical correlations in infantile hemangiomas and their mimics. Rom J Morphol Embryol. 2020;61(3):687–95. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chang CS, Kang GC. Efficacious healing of ulcerated infantile hemangiomas using topical timolol. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open. 2016;4(2):e621. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources