Surgery at Kaiser?

[pichpaw]

Has anyone's baby/child had hemangioma (or similar) surgery at Kaiser? The pediatric plastic surgeon at Kaiser (N. CA) has agreed to do the surgery and I like her a lot. However, she has not done many hemangiomas due to Kaiser usually not recommending surgery for them. She showed me pictures of two H surgeries and they looked good altho none were around the eye like my babies. However they were large Hs and my baby's is small. Just wondering if anyone has Kaiser experience.

Thank you!

Zoe

[nickbar]

Will there be a pediatric Ophthalmologist present/assisting during the surgery? I believe Kaiser had approved coverage of surgery for an eyelid h. of one of our msn moms. Surgery was done outside of the Kaiser network because they did not have the experience. I'll check with her to make sure I have the details correct.

Corinne

[pichpaw]

Because the H is beside the eye and does not involve the eye at all this won't be necessary. His is just on the skin beside the outer eye.

[nickbar]

yes, I understand, but the concern is the muscles affecting the area. Anytime a lesion is near the eye careful consideration has to be taken during surgery to protect the eye and any muscles/skin around.

Corinne

[pichpaw]

Thank you Corrine. I discussed this w/ surgeon and she said the surgery would only be skin level, not affecting the muscle at all. I also discussed the surgery w/ Dr. Reinisch who I was considering doing the surgery with (but would be out of pocket). He also did not say anything about needing an oculo-plastic surgeon or opthalmologist, so I hope it's ok! I've discussed this extensively w/ Dr. Reinisch and he never mentioned it. I think tho I will take your advice and email him just confirming this is true. Thanks so much for your input!!!

Zoe

[nickbar]

That is good news Zoe. I didn't mean to alarm you...just wanted to make sure you had checked into this. Dr. R has enough experience on excision to know.

Good luck. keep us posted.

C

[pichpaw]

Corrine,

Thank you. I emailed him just to double check. I have to say I really wish Dr. Reinisch were doing the surgery (he's so great!) but considering I can have it done at Kaiser for basically free I can't really justify it. Also we'd have to travel which would make it a bit harder on Ben (and us). But I ran it all by Dr. R and he seems to think it's ok. The Kaiser dr. has incredible credentials and 30% of her patients are babies age 3-4 mos. since that is when she does many cleft-palate surgeries. Dr. R was concerned that some of the Kaiser "pediatric" surgeons in reality do mostly adult cosmetic surgery so I checked into the percentages. We saw before and after pics which were good and obviously she does FAR MORE complicated work than removing a small superficial H. But one downside is that she has done some but not tons of H surgeries b/c Kaiser usually does not recommend removing them. But she showed me 2 pics of large Hs that she removed and the scars looked good. Also we're going to talk to a parent of one of her H patients to ask about their experience with her. I hope we're doing the right thing. Also, the steroids practically did nothing so in retrospect I regret doing them (these were Rx'd by the derm, not thte surgeon). We're weaning now and are down to 4 ML/day.

Thanks for all of your help!

Zoe

[pichpaw]

An update: Dr. Reinsish responded and confirmed that we don't need any eye specialist at the surgery. Now I am just so anxious for the surgery to be here (10/18) b/c I just want his scar to begin healing.

[pichpaw]

Another update: Ben's surgery was moved from 10/18 to 10/4. I am so relieved. Also the surgeon put me in touch with a mom of one of her patients who had H surgery with her. I just spoke to her and she was very happy with the surgery and her daughter recovered very well and she is happy with the scar. I am so glad there is progress!

[nickbar]

great news