| Angioma: Types, Symptoms and Treatments
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Angioma: Types, Symptoms and Treatments
Angiomas are a skin disorder in which benign tumors appear on the skin. These tumors are made from small blood vessels. Angiomas are not dangerous and may appear anywhere on the body. Angiomas are not contagious too. Formation of angioma occurs at or near the skin surface.
Types of Angioma
There are different types of angioma namely cherry angioma and spider angioma. Angiomas may be the symptom of liver disorder, cirrhosis.
Cherry Angioma:
Cherry angioma is sometimes called the senile angioma. They are also called the Campbell de Morgan Spots after the British surgeon who described them. Cherry angiomas are given this name because blood vessels abnormally proliferate and form cherry red papules over the skin. With increasing age, its density also increases. A group of tiny capillaries over the surface of skin form cherry angiomas. It looks like small round dome. When they start appearing, they are just a tenth of millimeter. Later they grow to become one or two millimeter across or may be larger. They become thick and raised. As they are near the skin surface, they can bleed if injured or punctured.
Spider Angiomas:
Spider Angioma is also known as the vascular angioma. It is found just below the surface of skin. It shows central red spot and spider’s web like red extensions radiating outwards. It can appear in healthy persons. Spider angioma generally appears at face, neck, arms, upper trunk, back of hands and fingers. The central red dot in the spider angioma is the dilated arteriole. Small veins carrying free-flowing blood appear as the spider’s web. You can see that if you apply a little pressure at the angioma, veins become empty and get refilled after you release pressure.
Spider angiomas are observed in pregnant women and women on hormonal contraceptives, due to high estrogen levels. Spider angioma also appears in people with serious liver disease because liver is not able to detoxify estrogen from blood.
Causes of angioma
There is no known cause of cherry angioma; it is largely related to aging. Cherry angioma can occur anytime in life but it is observed that it appears frequently after forty years of age.
Spider angiomas may appear in childhood and during pregnancy. Many females get it before the age of twenty. It can appear in healthy persons. But its intensity can be seen in people suffering with liver disease. There is no need to treat angiomas until they bleed or irritate you.
Symptoms of Angioma
There are some symptoms of angioma, which the suffering person can feel. You can see appearance of strawberry marks on the skin, which are caused by capillary hemoangioams. If it is venous angioma, patient can feel laziness, drowsiness, headache, nausea; vomiting and person can feel weakness in both limbs.
Treating Angioma
There are few different methods to treat angiomas. Angiomas can recur after treatment. These treatments show good cosmetic results. Angiomas can be treated by the following methods.
1. Laser surgery
2. By electrodessication which is performed by specialists. This process involves use of electric needle, which touches the angioma spot and burst that blood vessel.
3. By Liquid Nitrogen therapy. Liquid nitrogen is a cold gas. Using a spray gun, it is sprayed over the skin. It destroys the tumor by freezing it.
4. There are certain medications also like Pheytoin to treat venous angiomas.
Spider angioma in children, which is very common, may take years to disappear and it is not required to eliminate them clinically. If they are in pregnant women, they dissolve after the childbirth. Spider angioma in women, taking oral contraceptives, disappears after they stop taking contraceptives. If it is linked with liver disease, spider angioma disappears after liver transplant or increased liver activity.
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