Diagnosis, Treatment and Long-term Outlook
How is Hemophilia Diagnosed?
In addition to a complete medical history, family history and physical examination, your child’s physician may perform blood tests including screening how long it takes your child’s blood to clot, clotting factor levels and a complete blood count (CBC).
Treatments for Hemophilia
Specific treatment for hemophilia is determined by your child’s bleeding disorder specialist based on:
- Your child’s age and medical history
- Severity of the hemophilia
- Expectations for the course of the disease
- Your opinion or preference
Treatment depends on the type and severity of the hemophilia and is aimed at preventing bleeding complications. Although there is currently no cure, there are safe and effective products to treat both types of hemophilia. The most common treatment for patients with severe hemophilia is regular infusion of normal clotting factor into a vein 1 to 3 times per week. This is called prophylaxis and can prevent most bleeding episodes and their complications. Parents and even the children themselves learn to do this at home.
Treatment may include:
- Purchasing soft toys with rounded corners for young children. Padded clothing and helmets may be necessary for the child that is learning to walk or becoming more active.
- Avoiding contact sports.
- Giving immunizations under the skin (subcutaneous) instead of in the muscle (intra muscular) to prevent muscle bleeds.
- Giving factor replacement infusions to increase your child’s clotting levels routinely to prevent bleeding episodes. This is called prophylaxis.
- Giving the treatment recommended by your child’s hematologist before surgery, procedures or dental work. Your child may also need special treatments during and after the procedure to maintain the clotting factor levels and to improve healing and prevention of bleeding after the procedure.
- Discontinuation of aspirin and aspirin-containing products, since these products have been linked to bleeding problems.
Long-term Outlook for Children with Hemophilia
Hemophilia is a lifelong disease. With the advances of safe and specific clotting factors in laboratories, the prevention and treatment of bleeds is improving. With careful management, informed decisions and recognition of complications, children with hemophilia can live healthy lives with normal life spans.
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