Hemophilia

1. A condition characterized by a tendency to profuse and uncontrollable hemorrhage from the slightest wounds; it is caused by an absence or abnormality of a clotting factor in the blood, and is a recessive genetic disease linked to the X-chromosome, and therefore usually occurs only in males; there are several specific forms. It may be treated by administering purified clotting factor. It was formerly termed Hematophilia.