Purpose: To present an audit of a 25-year experience in the management of patients with of vascular anomalies (VA) in in our vascular anomalies centre and the impact of the vascular anomalies database.
Method: Patients who were referred to the Centre for the Study and Treatment of Vascular Birthmarks at Hutt Hospital between January 1996 and June 2020 were identified from our prospective VA database. The diagnosis, patient demographics (age, sex and domicile) and treatment were anlaysed. The incidence of VA in New Zealand was extrapolated, and publications and presentations arising from the VA database were quantified.
Results: 2351 patients from Central (1951), Auckland (49) and Midlands (120) regions and the South Island (231) of New Zealand, and internationally (9) were identified. The diagnosis was based on the (updated in 2018) ISSVA classification system. 1200 (52%) patients had vascular malformations including capillary malformation (n=497 including 24 cases of Sturge-Weber syndrome), venous malformation (n=490), glomuvenous malformation (n=24), lymphatic malformation (n=82) and, lymphatico-venous (Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome; n=50). 1024 (42%) patients had vascular tumors including infantile haemangioma (n=971; 96%), congenital haemangioma (n=24, 2%) and rare tumours (n=29, 2% - including kaposiform haemangioendothelioma, tufted angioma and epithelioid haemangioma). The extrapolated incidence of VA in New Zealand was 0.7%.Treatments included laser therapy, embolisation, surgery and combination of the three. Data from the VA database has resulted in 47 peer-reviewed articles, 2 book chapters, 3 PhD and a BMedSc theses, 21 peer-reviewed articles for other VA
Discussion: Our database contains the largest series of patients with VA within New Zealand. The collection of this data has been invaluable to the management and understanding of the biology of VA.