Effectiveness of Physiotherapy in the Improvement of the Perception of Quality of Life in Patients with Hemophilia. A Systematic Review

Background: Hemophilia is a hereditary and chronic disease that mainly affects males. It is characterized by a deficiency in one of the specific clotting factors. The main clinical manifestations of hemophilia are orthopedic, as a result of bleeding in the musculoskeletal system, mainly through bleeding episodes in joints and muscles.

Aim: To assess the effectiveness of treatments of physiotherapy for the improvement in the perception of quality of life in patients with hemophilia A and B.

Methods: This review has been developed a bibliographic search in different databases: PubMed, PEDro, the Virtual Library of health and Isi Web, and in different journals: Haemophilia, Physical Therapy and Manual Therapy.

Results: An analysis of variables was performed and assessed the methodological quality of studies. One study met the criteria for inclusion.

Conclusion: This review shows the small number of studies that evaluate the efficacy of physiotherapy to improve the quality of life of patients with hemophilia. There is no consensus on the relationship between the quality of life and clinical characteristics of patients and characteristic features of hemophilia. Clinical trials are needed to demonstrate the effect of physiotherapy in the quality of life of these patients.