CAMERON CRAMEY
Cameron Cramey is Senior Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia.
The WFH 2026 World Congress was a fantastic meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with friendly hosts, warm weather and the afternoon thunderstorms some highlights. There was a number of great sessions, and it was wonderful to see so many Australian health professionals and people with bleeding disorders presenting across all 4 days.
I particularly enjoyed attending the various free paper sessions where emerging research was presented from all over the world. A few of papers were of particular interest to me.
Chair ~ Abi Polus, Australia
Hemophilia and Tai Chi: A new rehabilitation and preventive pathway based on Tai Chi Quan practice ~ Emanuela Marchesini, Italy
Tai chi is a low impact, controlled form of exercise with benefits including enhanced proprioception (sense of your body in space), balance and mind body integration. This was a multi-centre pilot study for people living with haemophilia A or B who have existing joint arthropathy. It was conducted across 2 centres in Italy (Perugia and Milan). People with haemophilia attended a weekly supervised Tai Chi exercise class. It is still early stages of the study, but so far it has reported 24 enrolled participants with no adverse events.
Watch this space for further results on the benefits of Tai Chi from this study…
Comparison of total ankle arthroplasty and ankle athrodesis in end-stage hemophilic arthropathy ~ Bi O Jeong, Korea
This speaker examined surgical management approaches for end-stage ankle haemarthropathy and clinical outcomes following ankle arthrodesis (fusion) and Total Ankle Replacement (TAR) in end stage arthropathy in Korea. All participants were people with haemophilia with a complaint of pain, stiffness and decreased function. They had optimised conservative measures (including injection, synovectomy, physiotherapy and orthotics). 13 people with haemophilia underwent ankle fusion and 13 underwent ankle replacement. The average patient age was mid-40s. This study did not find any significant difference in pain or function between each group.
Co-chairs ~ Cedric Hermans, Belgium; Paula James, Canada; Pamela Narayan, India
Blood flow restriction training: a safe and viable alternative to traditional moderate to high load resistance exercise in hemophilia ~ Joaquin Calatayud, Spain
Traditional resistance training requires moderate to high intensity load creating increased joint stress. Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training involves partial arterial and complete venous restriction via an inflatable cuff with the aim to make muscle fibres work harder at lower loads.
This Spanish study compared BFR training with traditional strength training methods over an 8-week period. All exercise was performed under direct supervised of an experienced physiotherapist. It demonstrated equivalent results without any observed adverse events.
Important note: more study is needed into the safety of this form of resistance training; the Australia And New Zealand Haemophilia Physiotherapy Group (ANZHPG) does not currently recommend this form of resistance training.
Cameron Cramey was assisted by funding from WFH to attend the WFH 2026 World Congress.
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