Hemophilia Health Video

Video Transcript

CLIFFORD SEWELL, MD: Hello. I'm Dr. Clifford Sewell. A brief message about the hemophilia. Hemophilia is a genetic disorder passed down from family member to family member. Historically, hemophilia is known as the illness of kings and queens. It seemed often in family members that are in incestual or inbreeding. Hemophilia is described as a bleeding disorder, more specifically, it's a disorder known for deficiency in some clotting factors. These clotting factors are responsible for forming clots along with platelets. In the coagulation system, we have platelets as well as clotting factors. In hemophilia, there is deficiency in one or more clotting actors. Now, you still do have platelets so hemophiliacs will make clots and eventually stop bleeding; however, the sign of bleeding in a hemophiliac can be quite serious. The treatment for hemophilia is clotting factor replacement. The clotting factor replacement is much more effective than it was in the years past due to cleaner blood supplies and a higher donor pool. Symptoms of hemophilia can include obviously increased bruising easily, to bleed in the gums, and nosebleeds, heavier periods. In hemophiliacs, any sort of cut will be difficult to have hemostasis or clotting.