Purpose of review: The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of factor VIIa in treating severely bleeding patients.
Recent findings: Recombinant factor VIIa was developed in 1988 to treat patients with haemophilia A or B and antibodies against factors VIII and IX, or patients with a spontaneous inhibitor against factors VIII and IX. Since then factor VIIa has been shown to be very effective in treating many other bleeding disorders, such as diverse thrombocytopathias, antibodies against other coagulation proteins like factor V, and bleeding as a result of oral anticoagulation.
Summary: Recombinant factor VIIa may be the universal haemostatic agent, but further studies are needed to prove this.