Diseases of the Clotting System

The body's clotting system depends on platelets as well as many clotting factors and other blood components. If a hereditary defect affects any of these components, a child can have a bleeding disorder. Some of the most common bleeding disorders are:

• Hemophilia (pronounced: hee-muh-fil-ee-uh), an inherited condition that almost exclusively affects boys, involves a lack of particular clotting factors in the blood. People with severe hemophilia are at risk for excessive bleeding and bruising after dental work, surgery, and trauma. They may experience episodes of life-threatening internal bleeding, even if they haven't been injured.
• Von Willebrand disease, the most common hereditary bleeding disorder, also involves a clotting-factor deficiency. It affects both males and females.

Other causes of clotting problems include chronic liver disease (clotting factors are produced in the liver) and vitamin K deficiency (the vitamin is necessary for the production of certain clotting factors).

Article from KidsHealth.org