Hemophilia is a rare bleeding disorder in which the blood is not able to clot. People with hemophilia are unable to recuperate normally from an injury. This can lead to extensive bleeding from a wound or a cut, which may be followed by spontaneous internal bleeding. This may affect both the joints and muscles and result in fatal conditions. To manage it better, there needs to be increased awareness about hemophilia diagnosis and treatment methods.

The following section covers the required diagnosis tests for this disorder:

1. Tests to diagnose hemophilia

Typically, your medical advisor performs a physical examination to eliminate other conditions that may cause clotting problems. They may enquire about your family’s medical history too. This disorder is most commonly found in families, and knowing about your family history is a crucial step for hemophilia diagnosis.

• For children in whom severe hemophilia is suspected, the diagnosis is carried out during infancy itself. For children who have severe hemophilia, the symptoms start to occur right after a procedure like circumcision, or when they suffer through minor injuries while walking.
• Additionally, blood tests may need to be carried out to understand how much factor VIII and factor IX is present in the body.

These tests will reflect on the kind of hemophilia you have and whether it is moderate, severe, or mild. A doctor generally determines this based on the various levels of clotting factors present in the bloodstream. While considering the hemophilia diagnosis, here is what you need to know:

• People diagnosed with 5-30% of clotting factors inside the blood are said to have mild levels of hemophilia.
• People who have about 1-5% of usual clotting factors have moderate levels of hemophilia.
• People with less than 1% of usual factors have very high levels of hemophilia.

2. Management of hemophilia
Since this disease is categorized based on its severity, the hemophilia treatment course is administered depending on the condition type.

The main course of hemophilia treatment is replacement therapy. In this, the human plasma concentrating on healthy clotting factors are administered to replace unhealthy clotting factors which are deficient. The blood factor concentrates are produced from donated human blood. This replacement blood sample is screened and tested to reduce the risks of transmitting infections.

Additionally, recombinant clotting factors may be used for the replacement of unhealthy clotting factors. These survive for much longer while in circulation, which implies that a lesser dosage is required for hemophilia treatment.

While carrying out replacement therapy, clotting factors are mainly infused and injected into the vein of the patient. People who have mild to moderate hemophilia do not require this therapy unless they are going for some surgical procedure.

For people with severe hemophilia, treatment may be provided to stop bleeding. Patients who suffer from frequent episodes may be ideal candidates for administering prophylactic factor infusions. These may be provided twice or thrice a week for the prevention of bleeding.