Von Willebrand disease is the most common inherited bleeding disorder. Some of the most common
sympotoms of this disorder are:
Excessive bleeding after a cut or other accident
Excessive bleeding after surgery
One of the problems is that it can be hard to diagnose. At first you or your doctor
can mistake some of the symptoms to be a comon virus or cold.
There are three different types of von Willebrand disorder:
- Type 1 is the most common and mildest form of the disorder.
- Type 2 is usually a mild-to-moderate form of the disorder. It has four subtypes: 2A, 2B, 2M, and 2N.
- Type 3 is very rare and is the most severe form of the disorder.
Your doctor may order laboratory tests to be done to tell if you are effected with
von Willebrand. Normally people with sever von Willebrand are diagnosed at an early age.
- People born with the disorder usually have either one or both of these symptomys:
- Low levels of a protein called von Willebrand factor that helps the blood to clot
- Von Willebrand factor that doesn’t work properly
The Von Willebrand factor is one of the many proteins in your blood that assists
your blood to clot. The cells that line the walls of your blood vessels make von Willebrand factor. Unlike hemophilia, normally
when blood vessels are damaged platelets clot, or form at the site of the injury. Von Willebrand factor acts like glue and
helps the platelets stick together.
Von Willebrand diseaseis a disorder that will stay with you for a lifetime. Most people with von
Willebrand disorder have more of a mild form of the disorder, which usually doesn’t cause life-threatening
bleeding and normally doesn’t require treatment. However if treatment is nessary, medicines and medical therapies
are used.
To treat von Willebrand doctors will use medicines and replacement therapy.
