Prolonged bleeding in hemophiliacs is primarily due to a deficiency in what?

Prolonged bleeding in hemophiliacs is primarily due to a deficiency in clotting factors. Hemophilia is a genetic disorder characterized by the absence or low levels of specific clotting factors that are essential for normal blood coagulation. These factors are proteins in the blood that work together to form blood clots and stop bleeding.

In hemophilia, the deficiency typically involves either factor VIII or factor IX, leading to an impaired ability to form stable blood clots when bleeding occurs. This results in prolonged bleeding episodes, either spontaneously or following an injury, because the body cannot effectively initiate the clotting cascade.

Other options such as platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells are not the primary contributors to prolonged bleeding in hemophilia. While platelets play a crucial role in the early stages of hemostasis, their presence does not compensate for the absence of the specific clotting factors required to form stable clots, which is the key issue in hemophilia. Similarly, red blood cells and white blood cells are involved in oxygen transport and immune response respectively, but they do not influence the clotting process directly. Thus, the correct answer focuses on the essential role that clotting factors play in managing bleeding in individuals with