von Willebrand's disease (vWD) is an inherited disorder of bleeding, which is characterized by easy bruisability, mucosal hemorrhages, excessive posttraumatic bleeding, prolonged skin bleeding times, and quantitative or qualitative defects of the factor VIII molecular "complex." von Willebrand's disease and the structure and physiology of the factor VIII molecule have recently been reviewed.1-3
We studied a 7-month-old affected male infant whose father and paternal grandfather were known to have vWD. Because of his family history, the child's plasma was studied at birth, at 6 months of age, and after the intravenous (IV) administration of cryoprecipitate. Our findings emphasize the difficulty in establishing the diagnosis of vWD in the immediate postnatal period.
Report of a Case.—The patient is a 7-month-old boy, product of an uncomplicated 40-week gestation, born to a 19-year-old, blood group O, Rh-positive, gravida 1, para 1, abortus 0, hemostatically normal woman. Labor was induced with IV