Pain management in people with hemophilia in childhood and young adulthood

Introduction: People with hemophilia (PWH) commonly experience acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain during childhood and young adulthood, but their treatment is often inadequate. Areas covered: From 1 September 2020 to 15 April 2021, authors performed a literature search in PubMed and the Cochrane Library using 'hemophilia AND pain' as keywords. Authors found 1082 articles, 51 of which were chosen because we considered them to be intimately connected with the topic of this report. Multimodal pain treatment, including multimodal analgesia, physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM), and psychological therapies (imagery or relaxation, hypnosis), is currently the most recommended treatment for PWH. In acute hemarthrosis, in addition to hematologic treatment and joint aspiration, paracetamol/acetaminophen should be prescribed if the pain is mild, metamizole if the pain is moderate, and soft opioids (codeine or tramadol) if the pain is severe. In cases of chronic musculoskeletal pain due to hemophilic arthropathy, paracetamol/acetaminophen, COX-2 inhibitors, PRM, intra-articular injections of some drugs (corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid, platelet-rich plasma, mesenchymal stem cells), radiosynovectomy and behavioral therapies are advised. Expert opinion: Management of musculoskeletal pain in children and young adults with hemophilia should employ multimodal pain treatment (multimodal analgesia, PRM, and psychological strategies).