[Current status and future prospects of hemophilia treatment].

Over the past decade, with the use of plasma-derived factor VIII and factor IX, treated with virucidal methods, as well as with recombinant factor VIII, the replacement therapy of hemophilia has been intensified. In developed countries, a majority of patients are being treated at home, and large groups of children benefit from primary prophylaxis. A serious task in these countries for the coming years is the management of patients infected with HIV. In Poland and less-developed countries, the supply of antihemophilic factor concentrates is inadequate. Patients with inhibitor antibodies should be included in programmes of immune tolerance inducement. Many patients who had been multitransfused with cryoprecipate or received lyophilized concentrates before 1985, have developed chronic hepatitis associated with viral infections. About 15-30% show evidence of cirrhosis. Recombinant technologies should be improved and become more accessible in order to provide patients with safe and cheap antihemophilic factor concentrates. A true break-through in the hemophilia treatment would be a repair of the inherited clotting defect with gene therapy.