Tocolysis with the [beta]-2-sympathomimetic hexoprenaline increases occurrence of infantile haemangioma in preterm infants

Background Infantile haemangioma (IH) is the most commonly observed tumour in children. Off-label pharmacological treatment of IH with the beta-blocker propranolol induces regression of IH. Based on the fact that IH are more frequently observed in premature babies than in mature babies and the evidence that beta-blocker therapy leads to regression of IH, the authors generated the hypothesis that the use of β-2-sympathomimetics during pregnancy for inhibiting premature labour might increase occurrence of IH in preterm infants. Methods For group comparison t test, Mann-Whitney U test and Fisher's exact test were used. Logistic regression was carried out by the forward stepwise method with Wald statistics. Results Data of 328 preterm infants (