Rare bleeding disorders in young women

Lakshmi Venkateswaran1, Donald L Yee

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Section of Hematology/Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA. lxvenkat@txccc.org

Rare bleeding disorders can cause significant bleeding in children and adolescents. These encompass rare clotting factor deficiencies, and fibrinolytic pathway defects. Vascular anomalies can cause recurrent and refractory bleeding, and are included in this review of rare causes of abnormal bleeding in children and adolescents. Menorrhagia is often reported as a manifestation of these conditions. Succinct knowledge about these disorders, their clinical presentation, diagnostic work-up, and therapeutic options are crucial to the accurate diagnosis and optimal management of affected patients. This review provides an overview of these infrequently encountered disorders, discusses their recognition based on results of suggested screening tests and offers a general guideline for approach to therapy.

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