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Coagulation

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CSL Behring UK Ltd provides a range of therapies to treat disorders of the blood such as haemophilia and von Willebrand disease. The company also provides a product for the emergency reversal of warfarin.

Emergency Reversal of Warfarin
Warfarin is a medicine which thins the blood and is used to reduce the risk of blood clots. Warfarin is often prescribed to those with heart problems to reduce the risk of clots in the heart, which could travel to the brain and cause a stroke, or to the lungs and block a major artery. Warfarin is also given when people form clots elsewhere in their body.

People on warfarin need to take particular care that their doctor monitors the dose. The blood needs to be at the correct thickness to balance the risk of clotting with the risk of bleeding. When the dose is too high, severe bleeding can occur after a tiny knock or no obvious trauma at all. When this occurs it can result in a life-threatening bleed.

When a person on warfarin is experiencing a serious bleeding episode or needs to have an operation, it may be necessary to reverse the effects of warfarin to ensure that the blood clots properly, and does not carry on bleeding.

In non-emergency situations, doctors can tell patients to stop taking warfarin for a few days before any planned procedure or, in some cases, doctors can use Vitamin K to reverse the effects of warfarin. In emergency situations, doctors can use PCCs (Prothrombin Complex Concentrates). PCCs stop the bleed by reversing the effects of warfarin thereby allowing the blood to clot normally.

CSL Behring UK Ltd provides the following product for the emergency reversal of warfarin. Please click on the product name to access its patient information leaflet:

Haemophilia
Haemophilia is a disorder of the blood. Normally, when bleeding starts, the clotting factors help to form a clot at the site of injury. A clot is a kind of patch that covers the hole and prevents any more blood from flowing out. At least fourteen clotting factors have been identified. Each one is very important because they work like a team. If one of the factors does not do its job, the others do not work as well to form the clot that stops the bleeding.

To answer the question, “What is haemophilia?”, we can say that it is a problem with the blood in which there is not enough of one of the clotting factors needed for blood clots to form.

The most common form of haemophilia is "haemophilia A", which is a deficiency of clotting factor 8 (VIII). The next most common is "haemophilia B", which is a deficiency of clotting factor 9 (IX).

CSL Behring UK Ltd provides the following product to treat haemophilia. Please click on the product name to access its Patient Information Leaflet:

For further information on haemophilia, you can visit The Haemophilia Society’s website at www.haemophilia.org.uk

Von Willebrand Disease
People with von Willebrand Disease (VWD) have a problem with one of the clotting factors in the blood; this particular clotting factor is known as von Willebrand factor (VWF).

In people unaffected by VWD, this factor helps platelets stick to the wall of the damaged blood vessel and assists the glue-like clotting.

As well as having problems with their von Willebrand factor, many people with VWD also have a reduced level of another type of blood clotting agent, factor VIII. This is the protein missing in people with haemophilia A.

Symptoms of VWD vary. Some people with VWD never suffer any symptoms, but those who do may experience recurrent nosebleeds, easy bruising, bleeding from the mouth or gums and, in women, heavy periods. People with VWD may also bleed excessively after injury or surgery, and, in very rare cases, bleeding may occur in joints or muscles.

CSL Behring UK Ltd provides the following product to treat von Willebrand disease. Please click on the individual product name to access its Patient Information Leaflet: