1 The Department of Biochemistry, Marquette University School of Medicine, and Milwaukee Children's Hospital.
The bleeding tendency in hemophilia is due to a congenital and hereditary lack of thromboplastinogen which causes an incomplete conversion of prothrombin and an insufficient production of thrombin. The diagnosis should be based on the correlation of clinical data, history of heredity and the results of certain laboratory tests, of which the coagulation time, the clotting time of recalcified plasma, the prothrombin time and the prothrombin consumption time are most significant. Important in therapy are: first, protection against injury; second, local and systemic measures to stop bleeding; and third, the preparation of the hemophilic patient for an emergency operation.
Submitted on July 14, 1948