ReviewThe Journal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology2025
Complications of Topical Timolol in the Management of Infantile Hemangiomas: A Systematic Review.
Review in The Journal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Topical Timolol Beyond Infancy: A Retrospective Study of Its Use in Persistent Infantile Hemangiomas.Dermatology and therapy · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveInfantile hemangioma (IH) is the most common benign childhood tumor. Timolol is a widely used treatment for IH due to its efficacy and safety. Although systemic absorption is rare, timolol has been detected in urine and blood, raising concerns about potential adverse effects. This study aims to systematically review the literature on reported adverse effects associated with topical timolol for IH treatment.
methodsA systematic review following 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was conducted. PubMed and MEDLINE databases (2000-2024) were searched. Studies reporting treatment-related adverse effects of topical timolol for IH treatment were included.
resultsTwenty articles met inclusion criteria, comprising 1780 patients. Local adverse effects occurred in 4.7% of patients, including irritation, scaling, ulceration, and pruritus. Systemic adverse effects occurred in 1.2% of cases, including bradycardia, bronchospasm, wheezing, hypothermia, and sleep disturbances. There was no evidence that the severity or frequency of local adverse effects predisposed patients to systemic ones. Similarly, there was no pattern to suggest that longer treatment durations were associated with increased systemic effects. LIMITATIONS: Limitations include heterogeneity of included studies and the exclusion of studies that did not report complications, which may overestimate the frequencies of local and systemic adverse effects.
conclusionTopical timolol is generally well tolerated for IH treatment, with systemic adverse effects occurring infrequently. Preterm infants and those with ulcerated or deep IHs may be at increased risk for complications. Further research is warranted to better define risk factors for systemic absorption and establish optimal dosing guidelines for safe use in infants.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41446713PMC12724984What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.