Hemangiomas of oral cavity, pharynx and larynx

Nine patients with hemangioma of the oral cavity, pharynx and larynx treated in our clinic from 1995 to 1998 were reviewed with attention to diagnostic imaging and choice of treatment. Pathological diagnosis was cavernous hemangioma in 8 patients and venous hemangioma in 1 patient. As diagnostic imaging, MRI was useful to clearly demonstrate hemangiomas of these regions and color Dopper ultrasonography was also useful to evaluate the hemodynamics such as flow rate and flow direction within the tumor. Most of them showed low to iso signal intensity on T1 and high intensity on STIR and T2. They were enhanced by Gd-DTPA. The flow rate within the cavernous hemangioma was very slow measured by color Doppler ultrasonography. As the treatment for hemangioma of these regions, surgical resection was performed in 6 patients. Photocoagulation using holmium YAG laser was performed in 3 patients. Our results indicate that photocoagulation is a very effective treatment of mucosal hemangiomas with a low flow rate, which should be confirmed by color Doppler ultrasonography.