Review on Hemophilia Bleeding Disorder

Hemophilia is a bleeding disorder. It can make the body not be able to clot blood normally, and have excessive bleeding after an injury. There is not enough clotting factor in their blood. Clotting factor is a protein in blood that controls bleeding. People with hemophilia do not bleed any faster than normal, but can bleed for a loner amount of time. It often affects the head, stomach, joints, knees, elbows, and ankles. Symptoms may include many large deep bruises, joint pain and swelling, unexplained bleeding, and blood in urine. These symptoms can cause build up of blood (hematoma), blood clotting, and abnormal bleeding. To cause hemophilia there is a defect in one of the genes that determines how the body makes blood clotting factor VIII or IX.

These genes are located on the X chromosomes. If the gene is faulty, the result is hemophilia unless there is a dominant, normal gene on a matching X chromosome. Hemophilia is a sex-linked recessive disorder. If someone is the carrier of hemophilia, but the other person is not, there is a fifty percent chance their child will have hemophilia (more likely in a boy). If two people are carriers of hemophilia, there is a one hundred percent chance of having it. If there is no carrier of hemophilia in a relationship there is still a chance one can get it, even with no family history. When a father has hemophilia but a mother does not, none of the sons will have hemophilia, but, the daughters will carry the hemophilia gene. These kinds of defects occur more often in men than in women.Woman can only have hemophilia if their father has it or of their mother is a carrier. This, is very uncommon. In females (who have two X chromosomes), a mutation would have to occur in both copies of the gene to cause the disorder. There are two main types of Hemophilia.

Hemophilia A (due to clotting factor VIII deficiency) is the most common type of Hemophilia. Hemophilia B (due to clotting factor IX deficiency) occurs in one of twenty thousand newborns around the world. Both Hemophilia A and B are clinically almost identical and are inherited in an X-linked recessive genetic pattern. Depending on the severity of the hemophilia, symptoms can be worse or less likely. This can range from normal to severe. Today, treating hemophilia can be very effective. If a clot is treated quick and effectively it will help reduce pain in the joints, muscles, and organs. To treat a clot, the clotting factor that is missing when one has hemophilia is injected into the bloodstream. When enough clotting factor is injected the bleeding will stop. There is no cure yet and they are currently trying to find one.

Without treatment, if one has severe hemophilia it may be hard to go to school or work and they can even become physically disabled. Treatment is given for bleeding into a joint, injury to the neck, mouth, tongue, face, or eye, severe pain, swelling, open wounds, and more. Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) can cause more bleeding as well as other drugs.