About Bleeding Disorders

Rare Clotting Factor Deficiencies

Rare clotting factor deficiencies are a group of inherited bleeding disorders caused by a problem with one or several clotting factors.

Clotting factors are proteins in the blood that control bleeding. Many different clotting factors work together in a series of chemical reactions to stop bleeding. This is called the clotting process.

Problems with factor VIII and factor IX are known as hemophilia A and B, respectively. Rare clotting factor deficiencies are bleeding disorders in which one of the other clotting factors (i.e. factors I, II, V, V + VIII, VII, X, XI, or XIII) is missing or not working properly. Less is known about these disorders because they are diagnosed so rarely. In fact, many have only been discovered in the last 40 years.

     Content source: World Federation of Hemophilia