[Substitutive treatment of hemopjolia A using a new factor VIII concentrate]

Thirty children with classical hemophilia were treated with an intermediate-purity factor VIII concentrate prepared according to Newman. The average factor VIII concentration was 21 U/ml. Thirty five injections ranging from 3 to 55 U/kg of body weight were given. The clinical efficacy was satisfactory, no side effects were observed. In vivo factor VIII recovery was initially very high, decreased rapidly until the 4th hour post infusion and then slowed according to a biological half-life of 11.3 +/- 3.1 hours. A satisfactory correlation between the dose injected and the factor VIII in vivo recovery was observed only after four hours post injection. The commercially available concentrate contains in average 25 U of factor VIII per ml, 13 U/mg of fibrinogen and 2.03 U/mg of proteins. It can be injected with a seringe and is therefore adapted to home care treatment. In addition, it is convenient for prolonged treatment with high doses of factor VIII as required by surgical procedure of treatment of patients with an inhibitor, avoiding limitations caused by hypervolemia or hyperfibrinogenemia.