Abstract
Hemophilic intra-articular bleeding tends to recur in a particular joint. Bleeding in the joint seriously damages the adjacent tissue and causes chronic arthropathy. It has not yet been established that how to rehabilitate joints suffering from hemophilic chronic arthropathy. Therefore, hemophilic patients become limited in their daily activities because of deterioration of their joints. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the cause of arthropathy and to study the possibilities of rehabilitation. In the present study, one adult hemophilic patient (Hemophilia A) was observed for 8 years. In the period of observation, two types of deterioration were found in this patient's left knee joint. One was joint contracture; the other, joint instability. Before the two types of deterioration appeared, the patient's weight increased remarkably. We infer that the interaction between the weight increase and overwork of the joint resulted in the joint contracture. Furthermore, it may be inferred that an interaction between the increase in weight and muscle weakness caused by insufficient exercise produced the instability of the joint. The patient received rehabilitation therapy that had three aims: (a) increasing the range of motion of the joint, (b) improving the stability of the joint, and (c) strengthening the muscle and improving the coordination of movement in the patient's whole body. As a result of this therapy, the function of the patient's left knee joint was improved, and consequently, knee joint bleeding (the patient's principal symptom) disappeared. This improvement in function of the patient's knee joint supports our inference, and suggests a possible technique of rehabilitation for hemophilic arthropathy.
