Severe haemophilia A children on low‐dose tertiary prophylaxis showed less joint deterioration and better maintenance of functional independence than children on on‐demand treatment: A 6‐year follow‐up study

BACKGROUND: In countries with limited resource, haemophilia patients have to choose low-dose prophylaxis or on-demand treatment (ODT) because of economic constraints. Whether low-dose prophylaxis can achieve better joint function outcome than ODT over long-term remains unclear. AIM: To investigate the long-term effect of low-dose tertiary prophylaxis versus ODT on joint health in severe haemophilia A children. METHODS: This was a retrospective study. We enrolled and followed 34 severe haemophilia boys in China receiving on-demand treatment (n = 18) or low-dose prophylaxis (10-15 IU/kg, 2-3 times per week) for a medium-term (6-18 months, n = 9) or longer-term (19-30 months, n = 7). We evaluated their haemophilia joint health score (HJHS) 2.1 and functional independence score in haemophilia (FISH) at baseline and at their 6-year follow-up visits. Their annual bleeding rate (ABR) and annual joint bleeding rate (AJBR) were also recorded. RESULTS: During the 6-year follow-up period, ABR and AJBR were similar between the 2 prophylaxis groups, with each of the 2 prophylaxis group rates being significantly better (lower) than the ODT group (P < .05). Compared to baseline values, evaluation at 6-year follow-up showed HJHS improvement in both prophylaxis groups, although significantly (P < .05) only in the longer-term prophylaxis group. The FISH score showed insignificant change in patients in each prophylaxis cohort, compared to significant worsening (P < .05) in the ODT group. CONCLUSION: Low-dose tertiary prophylaxis reduced ABR and AJBR of children with severe haemophilia and better maintained their functional independence by the FISH over the long term. Longer-term prophylaxis also improved their joint health status by the HJHS.