[The advance of β-blockers in the treatment of infantile hemangiomas].

Infantile hemangiomas (IH) is the most common benign tumour in early infancy.IH often grows under skins and subcutaneous tissues around head and neck, but it is not rare in ophthalmologic clinical work.IH in the eyelids, orbit and other organs, characterized by their very rapid growth, can cause severe complications, including ptosis and translocation of eyeball. Periocular IH might cause serious visual loss through induction of strabismic, deprivational or anisometropic astigmatism.Visceral organ involvement may become life-threatening. Patients need to be treated immediately in these scenarios. Conventional treatments for IH include the use of corticosteroids, sclerosing agents, interferon, vincristine, etc., which had some side effects and also not effective to all IH.Recently, many specialized clinics reported the impressive effect of β-blockers, mainly propranolol, in the treatment of IH. Although IH is not among the approved indications for β-blockers, propranolol is still recommended as the first line treatment for IH. They acted as vasoconstrictors, regulating angiogenic pathways and inducing apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells. This review covered the current understanding of the indications, mechanism of action, dose regimen, administration route, treatment duration, clinical response, and adverse effects of β-blockers in the treatment of infantile hemangiomas.