Successful treatment of refractory gastrointestinal bleeding by systemic (oral) ankaferd blood stopper in a patient with Glanzmann thrombasthenia

Glanzmann Thrombasthenia (GT) is a genetic platelet dysfunction and a life threatening disease. Although it is a rare disease, it is the most common genetic platelet disorder. Symptoms and signs are mucosal and dermal petechia, recurring epistaxis and gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and menorrhagia. Findings may be mild to life threatening in severity (1). Ankaferd Blood Stopper (ABS) is a topical hemostatic agent of herbal origin which has recently become available for clinical use (2). It has been approved by the Turkish Republic Health Ministry for local use in bleeding due to superficial skin and dental disease. In the literature, there is a vast number of case reports regarding the application of ABS in gastrointestinal bleeding after surgical and dental procedures, both clinically and experimentally (3,4). In this case presentation, a patient with GT is reported in whom 3 months of gastrointestinal bleeding refractory to all medical therapies was controlled within a short time of using oral ABS.