Denise W. Metry, MD

Dr. Denise Metry has a special interest in the diagnosis and treatment of children with vascular birthmarks, particularly infantile hemangiomas, port-wine birthmarks, and other rare vascular birthmarks of the skin. She is dedicated to providing compassionate care for her patients and their families.

She is a founding and active member of the Hemangioma Investigator Group, an international physician working group established in 2000 to promote hemangioma research and education. She is the physician leader for the Sturge-Weber syndrome Clinical Care Network at Texas Children's Hospital, and the dermatology leader for the Vascular Birthmarks Clinic at Texas Children’s. She has authored well over 100 manuscripts and book chapters dedicated to furthering our understanding of vascular birthmarks, and she mentors, teaches and lectures locally, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Metry has longstanding expertise in the treatment of vascular birthmarks with over 20 years of experience. She offers a variety of medical treatments for infantile hemangiomas, including topical timolol and oral propranolol. She also has extensive laser experience and offers pulsed-dye laser for port-wine birthmarks, as well as alternative lasers for other types of vascular birthmarks. Lastly, she is involved in pharmaceutical research looking at novel, topical targeted gene therapies for vascular birthmarks.

Dr. Metry hosted the first PHACE syndrome research and family meeting at Texas Children's in 2008, from which diagnostic criteria for the syndrome were established. She is dedicated to vascular birthmark patient advocacy efforts in Houston, and recently has extended her passion to international mission work, having traveled to underserved parts of Asia and Africa to provide vascular birthmark education.