Purpose or Case Report: Soft tissue vascular malformations encompass a wide variety of lesions throughout the body. Appropriate treatment for these lesions is dependant on accurate classification and diagnosis. Unfortunately, inappropriate nomenclature and description by the radiologist can lead to confusion and possibly mismanagement.
Methods & Materials: A retrospective review of patients with known vascular malformations seen over the past ten years at a small urban children's hospital was performed. Medical records and radiologic studies were correlated with clinical history and where available, surgical findings. A selection of cases with important radiologic findings was identified and used for an imaging review.
Results: A multimodality review of the imaging findings seen with various soft tissue vascular malformations will be provided. Additionally, there will be a review of the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies (ISSVA) classification system, which is widely used by various subspecialists to classify these lesions. Examples of various vascular tumors, low-flow, and high-flow vascular malformations will be provided.
Conclusions: Vascular malformations and tumors are a complex group of lesions which can be daunting for the radiologist to describe and accurately diagnose. Due to the varying treatment for these lesions, accurate diagnosis is paramount. For this reason, pediatric radiologists should be familiar with the radiologic appearance and classification of these lesions.