Welcome to the India Chapter of the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation, VBF India!

Every year in the United States, 40,000 children are born with a vascular birthmark, 85% of which are in the head and neck area. Statistics show us that the incidence is the same in other countries. These birthmarks include:

• Hemangiomas, the most common type of vascular birthmark
• Port Wine Stains
• Venous Malformations

No one knows why vascular birthmarks occur, but treatment guidelines are changing.

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REGISTER NOW
The Vascular Birthmarks Foundation
along with the
The Vascular Birthmark Institute of New York

Present the 2008 Vascular Birthmarks Conference
and the “Mark of Beauty” Gala

Lisa and Greg Fortunoff, Mark of Beauty Gala Chairs and Sponsors	Edward Strausman 2008 Conference Honoree

We are very excited to announce that the 2008 Vascular Birthmarks Conference will be held in New York City on Saturday, November 15th. This year the conference is one full day only, with a fundraiser the evening before the conference. For the first time in VBF history, we are having the “Mark of Beauty” Gala to jointly benefit VBF and the VBI (Vascular Birthmarks Institute) at Beth Israel. Dr. Milton Waner and Dr. Alex Berenstein are the 2008 Co-Directors of the conference and Lisa and Gregory Fortunoff are the Friday evening Gala Chairs and Event Sponsors. The “Mark of Beauty” Gala will take place at the incredibly beautiful Hudson Theatre located at 145 West 44th Street from 7pm until 10 pm on Friday, November 14th. The conference will take place at the Beth Israel Union Square Auditorium, Phillips Ambulatory Care Center, at10 Union Square East between 14th and 15th Street on November 15th. It will start at 8:30am, with day care drop off and conference registration/check-in starting at 7:30am.

Read more

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VBF Names Dr. Alejandro Berenstein Physician of the Year

Alejandro Berenstein, M.D., was named this year’s recipient of the VBF Physician of the Year award for his outstanding and innovative techniques in treating massive, complicated, and often life-threatening vascular malformations and hemangiomas.

Dr. Berenstein is the Director of Beth Israel’s Hyman-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery (INN) at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, a state-of-the art facility for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases and complicated vascular malformations and hemangiomas. He is a pioneer in the field of Interventional Neuroradiology, a specialty that utilizes minimally invasive procedures to treat conditions related to the vascular system of the brain, head, face, spine, and spinal cord.

Read More about Dr. Berenstein

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Port Wine Stains: Clearance, Cure, and Recurrence
To Treat or Not to Treat

The following rebuttal by Dr. Stuart Nelson and Dr. Roy Geronemus was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in response to an article about the recurrence of Port Wine Stains (PWS) after pulsed dye laser treatment. At this year’s conference in Irvine, several physicians spoke about the pathology, progression and treatment of PWS. To summarize what was presented, after a PWS is treated using the pulsed dye laser, the vessels that are targeted by the laser will not necessarily come back, but rather new, deeper vessels will work their way up to the top of the skin thus making “some” stain appear. It is important to understand this because many people believe that PWS will always come back and, therefore, they should not have laser treatment. This is not true. While the laser does not “cure” the PWS, it offers the most hope for clearance, for keeping the skin from thickening and cobbling and for maintaining the best aesthetic outcome for the patient (comment by Linda Rozell-Shannon, President and Founder of the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation, 11/8/07).

Comments from Dr. Stuart Nelson and Dr. Roy Geronemus:

"We reviewed “Redarkening of Port-Wine Stains 10 Years after Pulsed-Dye-Laser Treatment” by Huikeshoven et al (NEJM 2007;356:1235-1240) with great interest and would offer our comments.

Read more here

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Volunteer for VBF India

VBF India needs a medical director for answering medical questions from
patients.

Medical Directors should know how to diagnose and treat vascular
birthmarks or at least refer the patient to a physician who can.

Medical Directors will be listed on the website with a photo and bio and we
will need an email address for sending all emails.

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VBF India President Kalpana

Welcome to VBF India. I am Kalpana, born and brought up in Delhi, India. I was a patient of a vascular malformation - Hemangioma and for a long time of my life, I had to live with that deformity. It affected the whole right side of my face including my eye, ear, nose, and neck. Being a girl and growing up in India, it became a sort of stigma for me. I didn't know that I deserved a better life. But, at the age of 25, I found the treatment and went through a very difficult but very memorable and beautiful phase of my life, undergoing several laser and reconstructive surgeries in the USA by some very highly specialized doctors like Dr. Waner, Dr. Shewmake, and Dr. David Wilkes. It brought a total turnaround in my life and in the lives of people related to me. God did a miracle in my life and now I have asked Him to use me for his purpose.

This website and my life is dedicated to all those people who helped me and supported me during that phase and to all those people whose lives will be changed for better through VBF India under leadership of Linda Shanon, executive director, from who I have learned lessons in faith, courage and hope.

Yours Sincerely,

Kalpana

President

VBF India

Read Kalpana's story here