My son bruises very easily when he falls over and the bruises last a very long time. He’s unfortunately got both pulmonary and aortic valve problems so he’ll need an artificial valve when his heart deteriorates to a certain level and then he’ll have to go on blood thinners. What considerations would there need to be regarding his bruising issues?
There has been a fairly large study of clotting factors in children with Noonan’s which found that there were occasional issues with factor 8 clotting agent but usually these were not causing serious bleeding although they did cause bruising more easily. In rare cases of post-operative bleeding, it was relatively easy to correct that with fresh blood which did contain the clotting agent. If it did come to an operation for the child in question, the specific needs would be looked at carefully and there were options as regards blood thinners as new ones were being developed, although very few were licenced for use with children at the moment. There are artificial valves which don’t require anti-coagulation but as in most cases, it very much depended on the individual case and there would be very detailed investigation before a decision was made. There had however been several cases where Warfarin had been used with children with Noonan’s.
