Pyogenic granuloma in children: treatment

Background: Pyogenic granulomas (PGs) are commonly acquired vascular tumors.Reports have revealed that topical timolol can be considered a treatment option for PGs.Objective: To study the effectiveness of topical timolol 0.5% in ophthalmic PG.Method: A retrospective study was carried out, where the result of treatment with 0.5% timolol was analyzed in 13 pediatric patients with ocular PG.The efficacy of treatment with timolol 0.5% eye drop was measured in terms of percentage reduction in the size of PG, and patients were divided into five categories as follows: (a) 80-100% reduction excellent responders, (b) 60-80% good, (c) 40-60% satisfactory, (d) 20-40% poor, and (e) < 20% very poor/no response.The follow-up was done for ≥ 3 months.Results: The age of the patients was between 2 and 15 years.Notably, 92.3% of the causes of PG were chalazion, and 92.3% (12 patients) received prior treatment.In all the patients, the PG was located in the lower palpebral conjunctiva.Nine (69.2%) patients had complete lesion resolution after a range treatment duration of 3-6 weeks and, therefore, were excellent responders.Notably, 7.7% presented a good response, 7.7% presented a poor response, and 15.4% presented a very poor/no response.None of the patients presented local or systemic side effects with the use of topical timolol 0.5%.Conclusion: The use of topical timolol 0.5% as a treatment for ocular PG in children was proved to be a well-tolerated treatment with no adverse effects or recurrences.