Hemophilia Effective Treatment
There are several approaches to treat different types of hemophilia. The best approach that doctors use to treat this disease is factor replacement therapy. Other therapies, such as gene therapy and hormone therapy, can also be useful depending on the severity and stage of the disease. Patients may also be given physiotherapy to rehabilitate the joints that got damaged due to internal bleeding. Following are the treatment options to treat hemophilia:
Factor replacement therapy:
Factor replacement therapy is the primary treatment to treat hemophilia. In this therapy, the patient receives a concentrated form of clotting factor that is missing in his blood. Patients with hemophilia A receive factor VIII, and hemophilia B patient receives factor IX. Doctors use this treatment method to replace the level of missing clotting factors in the plasma. This therapy is easy to use, and patients can receive this by themselves at home. There are three forms of factor replacement therapy:
Frozen plasma: This therapy involves the administration of fresh and frozen plasma to the diseased patient. Doctors use this therapy when more than one clotting factor is missing in the patient.
Bypassing medicines: These medicines include other forms of clotting proteins to help the blood make clots at the site of injury to prevent blood loss.
Clotting factors concentrate: this therapy involves the intravenous replacement of missing clotting factors.
There are two types of concentrates available in the market.
- Plasma-derived concentrates:The liquid part of the blood is known as plasma. This liquid part contains clotting factors, antibodies, and proteins. Clotting factors derived from human plasma are known as plasma-derived concentrates. In this procedure, the collected plasma goes through a series of steps to make it free from viruses and other harmful substances. Then clotting factors get separated from plasma and store for future use as a treatment strategy for hemophilia.
- Recombinant clotting factors:These concentrates are made in the laboratory under strict control measures by using genetic engineering techniques. Unlike plasma-derived concentrates, these are not made from human plasma. This therapy eliminates any potential risk of getting infections by using human-derived factors.