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Intramuscular hemangioma is a rare condition; it differs from infantile
hemangioma simply because it occurs in patients older than children.
This condition is commonly confused with other hemangiomas. Most
cases described as "intramuscular hemangioma" in the literature actually
represent soft
tissue venous malformations. This
confusion cause inappropriate referrals, imaging studies and even therapeutic
interventions in significant number of patients. Therefore, it is important to
distinguish these two conditions (intramuscular hemangioma versus soft tissue
venous malformation).
Intramuscular hemangioma can be seen in any age, commonly diagnosed in early
adulthood. In contrast to venous malformations, intramuscular hemangiomas have
arterial feeders and in contrast to AVMs,
these vascular birthmarks do not demonstrate arteriovenous shunting.
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Typical
MR Appearance of Intramuscular Hemangioma. This is a post-contrast
axial T1 weighted MR image showing a relatively small intensely
enhancing mass lesion in the beck of the neck with a small tortuous
appearing dark area in it (representing arterial feeder; dark signal
is due to fast flow in the vessel).
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Prognosis: Overall, these
lesions are
benign anomalies.
However, most lesions are problematic causing pain and discomfort
and demonstrate progressive enlargement in some patients. Because of
the fact that they are
located in the muscle tissue, most patients experience various
degrees of pain.
Therapy:
a- Embolization
b- Surgery
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