Background Vascular anomalies are common and multidisciplinary involved diseases. The greatest impediment to their treatment in the past was their confusing terminology and clinical heterogeneities. This hospital-based retrospective study assessed some clinical characteristics, diagnosis, therapies and outcomes of patients with vascular anomalies in southeast China.Methods A total of 592 vascular anomalies patients (patients with intracranial tissues or viscera involved were excluded), admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from January 2006 to September 2009, were enrolled in the study. Data for clinical characteristics, diagnosis, therapies and outcomes were collected and analyzed.Results Of the 592 patients, the male:female ratios in the vascular tumor group (n=187) and the vascular malformation group (n=405) were 1∶1.49 and 1∶1.06 respectively, with no significant difference between them. The mean onset age of the vascular tumor group was significantly younger than that of the vascular malformation group (P ＜0.001). The head and neck were the most commonly (31.4％) involved areas in vascular anomalies. A total of 23.8％ of the patients with vascular anomalies had definite symptoms caused by the vascular lesions. In the vascular tumor group, 94.1％ of them were infantile hemangiomas. Venous malformation was the most common (41.0％) subtype of vascular malformations.Surgical therapy was undertaken in 94.2％ of the patients with vascular anomalies. Of the 519 patients available for the 16-58 month follow-up, 322 patients (62.0％) were cured, 108 patients (20.8％) were markedly improved, 57 patients (11.0％) were partially improved, and 32 patients (6.2％) were uncured.Conclusions Vascular anomalies are clinically heterogeneous. While the outcome is generally favorable, further effort should be made to determine the appropriate terminology and management.