Incidence of joint damage in von Willebrand disease

Recurrent joint bleeds and development of chronic joint disease is a major concern in patients with bleeding disorders. In his original paper E.A. von Willebrand reported joint bleeds as one of the clinical features of von Willebrand disease (VWD). However, little attention is usually paid to joint bleeds and chronic joint disease in VWD in textbooks on bleeding disorders. Most physicians would probably say that patients with VWD seldom need orthopedic surgery because of hemophilic arthropathy. This notion is underscored by our own experience.