Hemangioma

Hemangiomas are benign tumors of vascular origin, usually seen in early childhood. Though many types exist according to the ISSVA classification, the most common are by far infantile hemangiomas. Other types include congenital hemangiomas, spindle-cell hemangiomas, epithelioid hemangiomas and intramuscular hemangiomas.

Terminology

Unfortunately, the term hemangioma has been widely misused to apply to many non-neoplastic vascular malformations, particularly the common non-neoplastic soft tissue venous malformations and cerebral cavernous venous malformations (cavernomas). Gradually, the everyday nomenclature is catching up to modern classification systems (see ISSVA classification and/or the less used Hamburg classification system), and it is best to avoid the term hemangioma unless referring to the truly neoplastic entities above.

Further discussion is delegated to the vascular malformations and tumors article.