Children's Hospital Boston 300 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 355-6000
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Clinical Services (Vascular Anomalies Center):
Vascular Malformations
What are vascular malformations?
Vascular malformations are caused by a localized developmental error in which the blood or lymph vessels are abnormally formed before birth. Vascular malformations usually grow in proportion to the child, although sometimes they can expand rapidly. Vascular malformations never regress.

There are a number of different sub-types of vascular malformations, depending or based on the predominant channel abnormality:

Vascular malformations are further sub-categorized based on their flow characteristics. The two major categories are:
  • "slow-flow" anomalies (which include CM, LM, and VM)
  • "fast-flow" anomalies (which include AVM and arterial malformations).
Vascular malformations occur in the skin and can also arise in any part of the body, such as the brain, lungs, gastrointestinal track, kidneys, genitalia and also muscles and bones. The combined forms affect the extremities where they are associated with over growth in girth and in length.
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