Musculoskeletal complications of hemophilia.

Persons with hemophilia may be crippled by hemorrhages into soft tissue, the pressure destroying nerve and muscle. Recurrent bleeding into joints produces severe arthritis with synovitis and damage to cartilage and bone. The resulting deformities, even of long standing, may be greatly lessened, so far as impairment of function is concerned, by conservative orthopedic treatment. Treatment also may slow the progress of crippling deformities.