Orthopedic Surgery in Hemophiliac Patients: a Physiotherapist’s Point of View

Hemophilia is an ancient disease, but the ability to perform orthopedic surgery safely on people with hemophilia is a recent development. Prior to the discovery of cryoprecipitate in 1965, death was an almost-guaranteed complication of surgery in a hemophiliac patient. In 1890, in keeping with the current state of surgical knowledge, Konig opened the knee joints of two patients “to relieve painful swollen joints”. The positive outcome of this was the world’s first published description of hemophilic arthritis. However, both patients died from the ensuing blood loss [1].