Sequential therapy: an option for hemophiliac patients not responding to monotherapy with bypassing agents. Observational study of the GrHeCol (Grupo Hemofilia Colombia)

Abstract

Introduction and objectives: Patients diagnosed with severe hemophilia are at risk of developing inhibitors of low or high title, being the treatment of choice for this latter group of patients the immune tolerance therapy (ITI). In cases where the immune tolerance fails or presents bleeding events, we can use activated prothrombin complex (APCC) or Recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa); however, patients may fail to these agents as monotherapy. The aim of this paper is to report five cases of severe hemophilia and high titer inhibitors with mayor bleeding, which fail to respond to monotherapy and required sequential therapy. Methods: Case report study, qualitative variables are presented as absolute and relative frequencies and quantitative are summarized with measures of central tendency. Results: Five patients with median age 20 years; monotherapy treatment with median 10 days; 8.6 days of sequential therapy, time to control the bleeding: 4 days. There were no thrombotic complications. Conclusions: Sequential therapy is an option for patients who do not respond to monotherapy and requires hemostatic control. In all the cases of this report, the patients were responsive with bleeding control.

Keywords

• Hemophilia
• Inhibitors
• Activated Prothrombin Complex Concentrates
• Recombinant Factor VIIa