Utilization of Fresh Frozen Plasma and Cryoprecipitate in Factor VIII and Factor IX Deficient Hemophilia Patient

Haemophilia is one of the most common causes of inherited bleeding disorder resulting from deficiency of coagulation factor VIII or factor IX. Ideally, replacement should be done with factor concentrate. Due to economic constraints associated with its procurement, bleeding episodes are regularly dealt with Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP) or cryoprecipitate in low-resource countries. This study was carried out to compare the utilization profile and clinical characteristics of haemophilia patients receiving FFP and cryoprecipitate for replacing clotting factor deficiency. This cross-sectional comparative study was conducted in the day care unit of the Department of Transfusion Medicine of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University between 2 groups of haemophilia patients receiving either cryoprecipitate or FFP for treatment. Out of the total 100 haemophilia patients, 50 were treated with cryoprecipitate and 50 with FFP. In FFP group, the majority of patients (48% in cryoprecipitate group and 36% in FFP group) were in the age group of more than 5 to 10 years followed by 11 to 15 years age (24% versus 30%) with a mean SD of age in cryoprecipitate group and FFP group being 11.78±5.61 and 13.42±6.12 years, respectively. About 33 (66.0%) had a history of bleeding following trauma and 32 (64.0%) had a history of spontaneous bleeding among the patients in cryoprecipitate group as a cause of swelling/bleeding and in FFP group, 23 (46.0%) had history of spontaneous bleeding followed by 23 (34.0%) with history of bleeding following trauma. Regarding the type of bleeding, oral bleeding was most common, followed by soft tissue bleeding in both group (40.0% versus 38.0%). Presence of ecchymosis in both groups was statistically significant. The difference in type of haemophilia between the two groups was statistically significant (p<0.001) with a prevalence of haemophilia A of about 88%. The life expectancy of haemophilia patients is increasing dramatically day by day with successful and effective treatment with the appropriate plasma component. Cryoprecipitate is better than FFP as there is less chance of volume overload minimizing leucocyte induced non-haemolytic febrile transfusion reaction and rapid correction of coagulation factor.