Normally the blood clots in few seconds for healthy individuals, but in persons affected with hemophilia it takes long time for the blood to clot. There are three types of hemophilia namely, hemophilia A, B, and Von Wilebrand disease.
Causes :
Blood clotting is a process which involves series of reactions from the body mechanism called coagulation. You require special kind of protein for coagulation to take place. In some persons, the protein factor is not present in the blood which increases the time of bleeding. Hemophilia is caused by lack of factor VIII or IX. Again this disorder is hereditary and run on families. To some extent males are more affected with this problem than females. There is 70% of chance of getting hemophilia if any of your parents have this problem.
Symptoms :
Excess of bleeding, uncontrolled bleeding for long time is the major symptom of hemophilia. In many cases, people with hemophilia are not diagnosed initially and later identified when they undergo surgery or facing trauma or major injury. In rare cases, internal bleeding may cause death.
Bleeding in urine (hematuria) is common in patients with this disorder. Bleeding in joints occur affecting joints in knee, shoulder, ankle or feet. There may be prickly or burning sensation of pain in the knee joints along with swelling in the joints. Sometimes, bleeding occurs in muscles of thigh, calf and forearm muscles.
In severe case, blood may not clot causing bleeding in the central nervous system which is life threatening. Similarly bleeding in brain (intracranial) occurs in adults with or without injury.
Tests/Diagnoses :
- Any doctor can easily identify this problem since bleeding may not stop after minutes. Very often, people with hemophilia will have family history of this disorder. In children this disease can be detected by non-stop bleeding during falls.
- The doctor will do partial thromboplastin time analysis for measuring the blood clotting time.
Treatment :