What is hemolytic anemia?

Also known as: acquired hemolytic anemia, autoimmune hemolytic anemia, extrinsic hemolytic anemia, intrinsic hemolytic anemia.

Anemia is a disorder in which the body doesn’t have enough red blood cells. Hemolysis is a method whereby red blood cells are broken down and destroyed.

There are are large number of different ways this can happen and therefore there are a large number of types of hemolytic anemia. As red cells are broken down, the bone marrow has to produce more new ones, faster.

Depending on how fast (acute hemolytic anemia) or slowly (chronic hemolytic anemia) the red cells are destroyed (and the bone marrow attempts to replace them) so the signs/symptoms and complication will vary.

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM