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Good Clinical Responders to Topical Timolol in Patients with Infantile Hemangiomas: A 7-Year Retrospective Study of 328 Korean Patients

Background Topical timolol is widely used for treatment of superficial infantile hemangioma (IH). However, little is known about factors that affect the response to topical timolol treatment. Objective This study aimed to investigate the efficacy, safety, and predictive value for good response to topical timolol for IH. Methods A retrospective review of medical records and clinical photos of 328 patients with IH treated with topical timolol 0.5% solution was conducted. Serial clinical photographs were compared with those at the initial visit using a 100-mm visual analogue scale (VAS). Treatment response was defined as an improvement of at least 75% from baseline in IH lesions within 12 months of treatment. Results Overall, IH patients treated with topical timolol showed significant improvement from baseline, showing that the final VAS score within 12 months of treatment was 69.7±20.4. The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed age at initiation of treatment (p=0.007), length of gestation and fetal growth (p=0.03), depth (p=0.01), and flexural area (p=0.007) were significantly associated with treatment response. Only four patients (1.1%) reported local irritation. Conclusion This study demonstrated that topical timolol treatment was an effective and well-tolerated treatment for IHs. Physicians are encouraged to consider several patient- or lesional factors that might affect treatment response to achieve better clinical outcomes.