Lyme Disease Shows Impact on Healing Ability in Hemophilia Hemarthrosis
At the 2018 American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Annual Meeting, physicians reported two cases of patients with hemophilia who developed hemarthrosis refractory to treatment and were subsequently found to have Lyme disease. Based on their experience, the physicians recommend considering concurrent Lyme disease for patients with hemophilia A or B who live in Lyme endemic areas and develop refractory hemarthrosis despite intensive medical therapy.
The first patient was a 12-year-old boy with moderate hemophilia A and the second a 6-year-old boy with hemophilia B. Both developed provoked knee hemarthrosis that failed to respond to various treatments, including weeks of daily or twice daily factor replacement with standard half-life recombinant factor IX products aimed at 100% correction. Upon further testing, Lyme titers were found to be positive and antibiotics were initiated, during which the knee hemarthrosis significantly improved.
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Reference
Maurer L, Lapinski J, Cooper JD, et al. Concurrent Lyme disease significantly impairs healing in hemophilia hemarthrosis. Presented at: 2018 American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology; May 2-5, 2018; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Abstract 088.
