Waner has been at the forefront of the movement for early surgery. He believes that if surgery is inevitable, waiting until the child is ready for school is simply cruel. After an hourlong surgery under Waner's hand in April, Garrett Bradley was left with a scar that runs from the corner of his nose through his upper lip, but it will likely fade into a thin line over time. While they could have waited up to 10 years to see if the hemangioma disappeared on its own, the Bradleys are convinced they did the right thing. More than the psychological implications, they worried that Garrett would hurt himself and they wouldn't be able to stop the bleeding.
Some surgeons shy from operating on children with either condition.
Cutting into the tangle of vessels can unleash a gusher of blood, and young children have little blood to lose. And if any of the lesion is left behind, the whole thing will grow back. That's what happened when Elaine Blaisdell, now 17, was first operated on five years ago in Pittsburgh. Her mother, Patty, says the plastic surgeon diagnosed the growth on her lip as a hemangioma and said that if he removed it all, it would damage the muscles around her lip and impair her speech. The lesion turned out to be a vascular malformation that grew back within six months.