Annulare and Pyogenic Granuloma Treatment & Management

Updated: Mar 26, 2019
  • Author: Richard Lichenstein, MD; Chief Editor: Steven C Dronen, MD, FAAEM  more...
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Treatment

Medical Care

Granuloma annulare

Granuloma annulare rarely requires any treatment since spontaneous resolution is common.

Medical and surgical interventions should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

Although there are numerous case reports of successful treatment of granuloma annulare, including medical and phototherapy options, randomized, controlled clinical trials are needed. [9]

Pyogenic granuloma

Patients with pyogenic granuloma may present with acute bleeding from the vascular lesions, particularly when they are intraoral. For patients who present with hemorrhage, bleeding often may be controlled with direct pressure and the airway should be secured if necessary. Intravenous access may be indicated if hemorrhage is severe..

A vasoconstrictor packing (eg, cocaine or tetracaine with adrenaline) sometimes may be needed.

When bleeding is refractory or recurrent, sclerotherapy by direct injection of 1-2 mL of 1% sodium tetradecyl sulfate into the vascular plexus is usually effective and may even provide a definitive cure.

Compress the lesion for 15 minutes following injection. Sclerotherapy usually is necessary in order to allow time for the tumor vessels to go into spasm.

Effective treatment includes excision (although this may be difficult if the lesion is extensive), electrodesiccation, curettage, chemical cauterization, and injection sclerotherapy. Carbon dioxide and argon lasers have been used successfully for superficial cases of pyogenic granuloma. Pulsed-dye laser also has been shown effective in the treatment of pyogenic granulomas when the lesion is superficial and of less than 0.5 cm thickness. Advantages of excision and electrocautery are ease of use and lack of recurrences according to one recent study in children.

A meta-analysis demonstrates that surgical excision offers the lowest overall recurrence rates (2.94%) and cryotherapy offered the lowest overall recurrence rate (1.62%). [10] If surgical excision and closure are not performed, cauterization with silver nitrate should be the first-line treatment.

In pediatrics, a case series has demonstrated the use of oral or topical beta-blockers to be a potential noninvasive treatment of mucosal pyogenic granulomas. [11]

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Consultations

If diagnosis is unproven, follow-up care with a dermatologist is indicated.

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Long-Term Monitoring

Further outpatient care is needed to follow the progress of lesions because as many as 20% of children with granuloma annulare experience recurrence.

Local recurrence after treatment of pyogenic granuloma by any method is not uncommon. In a one series, most of patients with uncomplicated pyogenic granuloma were treated with single shave excision and electrocautery, with no recurrences. [12]

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