frequency and degree of chronic arthropathy in hemophilia a patients on prophylactic and on-demand treatment

Hemophilia A is the most common congenital bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency in coagulation factor VIII activity, characterized by a marked bleeding tendency. It is inherited recessively. The most common complication of the disease is chronic arthropathy. In the prophylactic treatment regimen, the subjects receive preventative F VIII infusions every second day or three times a week. In an on-demand regimen, bleeds are treated as they occur. Analysis of the frequency and degree of chronic hemophilic arthropathy in patients with moderate and severe hemophilia A. Analysis of involvement of individual joints, and their score values by the treatment regimen (prophylaxis vs. on-demand treatment.) The study included 23 patients - 15 patients on „on-demand“ regimen and 8 patients who had prophylaxis, all being treated at the Clinic of Hematology and Clinical Immunology, Clinical Center Niš. In the assessment of frequency of complications we used descriptive statistics: the number, proportion and mean. The comparison of arithmetic means of the two samples was performed using the t-test. The comparison of frequency values was performed using the chi-square test or Fisher’s test. In the group without prophylaxis, the knee and hip were the most commonly affected sites (73.33% and 53.33%), and in the group with prophylaxis, the elbow joint was mostly affected (37.50%). The knee was statistically more often affected in patients without prophylaxis compared to those on prophylaxis. The knee score had the highest value in both groups. It was statistically significantly higher in patients without prophylaxis compared to those on prophylaxis. The hip score was the second highest value in the examined groups, the third was the elbow joint score, followed by the ankle score, and the lowest score was observed for the shoulder joint. Elbow and ankle scores were statistically significantly higher in patients without prophylaxis compared to those on prophylaxis. Chronic arthropathy is the most common complication in patients with severe and moderate Haemophilia A, with maximum involvement of the knee joint in both groups of patients (with or without prophylaxis), but with a statistically significantly higher score in patients without prophylaxis.