Hemophilic Arthropathy in Children: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Management

Arthropathy is a serious and common problem in patients with hemophilia impairing the patient’s quality of life seriously. The most commonly affected joints in hemophilic arthropathy are knees, ankles and elbows. Even a single bleeding could cause devastating effects to synovium, cartilage and also subchondral bones. Ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging have been advocated for the studying of cartilage damage. Prophylaxis has been demonstrated as a standard choice of management to prevent hemophilic arthropathy development. Primary prophylaxis starting at early years of age is very important to prevent hemorrhages but secondary prophylaxis in adolescents has also significant success rates. As the duration of exposure to the blood increases in the joint cavity, degeneration of the cartilage matrix and resultant cartilage loss also increase, so the aspiration of the hematoma from joint plays an important role in prevention of the disease progression. Synovectomy may be required in cases where prophylaxis and aspiration does not prevent the recurrent hemorrhages. The purpose of synovectomy either with medical or surgical methods is to remove the problematic synovium to prevent the progression of hemophilic arthropathy. Medical synovectomy (synoviorthesis) has two basic types; radiosynovectomy and chemical synovectomy and the former one is appearing to be more effective with an about 85% success rates. If all of these measures fail to prevent the progressive cartilage damage, open or arthroscopic synovectomy, arthrodesis of the affected joint or even arthroplasty could be necessary. Here we tried to summarize the pathological mechanism, diagnosis and management of hemophilic arthropathy in children.