Approach to the Patient with Bleeding

Abstract

Approach to the patient with bleeding begins with a thorough bleeding, medical, and family history to determine the nature of bleeding and severity of bleeding symptoms. Use of a Bleeding Assessment Tool allows the clinician to obtain a comprehensive bleeding history and ultimately determine the individual bleeding score that reflects bleeding severity and is classifiable as either normal or abnormal. In the absence of significant findings within patient history or presenting symptoms clearly pointing to a specific bleeding pathology, an approach to laboratory investigation is presented that proceeds through first-line, second-line, and third-line testing.

Keywords: Bleeding assessment tool (BAT); Bleeding score; Hemophilia; Platelet function disorder (PFD); Von Willebrand disease (VWD).