A clinic which brings new hope to patients born with unsightly birthmarks has passed a significant landmark. Health Editor Barry Nelson reports on a remarkable North-East success story.

NORTH-EAST plastic surgeon Tobian Muir was intrigued when he heard of a new way of treating birthmarks. A number of years ago Mr Muir, now at The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, was working in South Africa when he heard about the successful treatment using a former cancer drug.

A Japanese surgeon had realised that a hitherto unrecognised side effect of a cancer drug called bleomycin was that it drastically shrank birthmarks.

When Mr Muir arrived on Teesside in 2004 he decided to open a specialist clinic using bleomycin to treat birthmarks.

When it opened it was the first of its kind in Western Europe. Seven years later, Mr Muir’s clinic has just treated its 250th patient.

Typical of its success stories is Matthew Bond, aged 18 months, from Darlington.

Little Matthew developed a deep cherrycoloured birthmark across his nose only days after he was born, but after three bleomycin injections it has nearly disappeared.

It was only by chance that Matthew was referred to the specialist birthmark clinic by his Darlington GP.

His parents had the option to wait a couple of years for laser surgery or to try the bleomycin injection. As the birthmark was growing dangerously close to his eye they opted to try the new treatment and Matthew had his first injection at six months old.

His parents – who have asked not to be identified – told The Northern Echo: “A lot of thoughts go through your mind as a parent.

You notice people staring and you can’t help but worry about whether they will get bullied at school.

“A lot of people have to wait years for laser treatment but we could start the injections straight away. It was not dramatic at first, but friends and family started to notice a difference and now people mistake the birthmark for a patch of eczema. The difference is amazing.

“We did not expect it to look this good. He’s just a completely different child.”

The South Tees trust’s birthmark clinic sees more than 100 new patients a year but, thanks to the the procedure used by Mr Muir and his team, many do not even need to have surgery.

The scarless treatment involved injecting bleomycin through the skin directly into the strawberry birthmark.

The birthmark is usually the result of a vascular malformation where the veins, arteries or blood vessels have formed abnormally.

The treatment can produce dramatic results.

Mr Muir’s clinics, which are held at The James Cook Hospital and the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, sees people from all over the UK. Some people travel from as far away as Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Carlisle for this pioneering treatment.

The results are quite outstanding, with 93 per cent of patients responding to treatment with the injectable drug.

Four out of five of them showed significant improvement and the rate of recurrences is extremely low at just one per cent.

“It is great to say we have helped our 250th patient as this treatment can produce lifechanging results,” says Mr Muir.

“But there are many people out there who are not getting the treatment they should because they don’t know it’s available.

“We’ve seen people who have been told nothing else can be done for them and the results they have had with this treatment have been significant.

“We have a very good track record and a high success rate. Newcastle and Durham are both sending their patients to us and we have also been training staff at Birmingham Children’s Hospital to help them set up their own clinic.”

BIRTHMARKS can have a huge emotional and psychological impact on children when they are growing up and vascular malformations can be disfiguring and cause pain and discomfort.

Traditional treatment involves laser surgery or facial surgery, which leave permanent scarring, or high dose steroids which can lead to other complications.

There is also a 30 per cent potential recurrence rate in some vascular malformations following surgery.

Mr Muir added: “With the bleomycin injections, patients usually need three to four treatments and as it is a day case procedure, they do not require an overnight stay and are in and out of hospital very quickly.

“The treatment is quite specific and gives a very natural result but, best of all, patients say they can feel normal again.”