Bleeding disorders is a general term for a wide range of medical problems that lead to poor blood clotting and continuous bleeding. Doctors also call them terms such as coagulopathy, abnormal bleeding and clotting disorders.
When someone has a bleeding disorder they have a tendency to bleed longer. The disorders can result from defects in the blood vessels or from abnormalities in the blood itself. The abnormalities may be in blood clotting factors or in platelets.
Blood clotting, or coagulation, is the process that controls bleeding. It changes blood from a liquid to a solid. It's a complex process involving as many as 20 different plasma proteins, or blood clotting factors. Normally, a complex chemical process occurs using these clotting factors to form a substance called fibrin that stops bleeding. When certain coagulation factors are deficient or missing, the process doesn't occur normally.
Within seconds of an injury, tiny cells in the blood, called platelets, bunch together around the wound. Blood proteins, platelets, calcium and other tissue factors react together and form what's called a clot, which acts like a net over the wound. Over the next several days to weeks, the clot strengthens, then dissolves when the wound is healed.
In people with bleeding disorders, clotting factors are missing or don't work as they should. This causes them to bleed for a longer time than those whose blood factor levels are normal. It's a myth that persons with bleeding disorders bleed to death from minor injuries or their blood flows faster. Bleeding problems can range from mild to severe.
