Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia

By Health & Medical Last updated Sunday, March/31/2019

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Your Guide to
Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia

Your doctor may also try combining statins with other drugs that lower the amount of cholesterol that gets into your body from the food you eat. Ezetimibe (Zetia) is one of these drugs.

Statins may also be combined with drugs that help reduce the amount of cholesterol that moves through your blood. Some examples are Colestid, Prevalite, and Welchol.

Two other drugs have been approved for people with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia: lomitapide (Juxtapid) and mipomersen (Kynamro). You get Kynamro as an injection once a week. Juxtapid comes in a capsule that you can swallow. These drugs lower LDL cholesterol and are meant to be used together with a low-fat diet and other medicines that lower your cholesterol.

If different combinations of medicine aren't doing the job, your doctor may ask you to try a treatment called apheresis. It removes cholesterol from your blood. It's a little bit like dialysis, the treatment that's used for kidney disease. You go to a clinic or hospital where some of your blood is removed through a tube called a catheter. LDL cholesterol is taken out of your blood before it's returned to your body. The procedure takes several hours, and you'll need to do it regularly.

Sometimes, none of the treatments work. In that case, you might need a liver transplant. The new liver will have normal LDL receptors that will remove the bad cholesterol from your blood.

Your doctor will put you on a waiting list for a liver from a donor. A liver transplant is major surgery, and it could take you 6 months to a year before you can return to your regular lifestyle. After your transplant, you'll need to take drugs that prevent your body from rejecting the new liver.

If you're considering a liver transplant, you'll probably need to get some emotional support from family and friends. Support groups can also help by putting you in touch with people who are also getting transplants. Ask your doctor about educational workshops that can help explain what to expect before and after a transplant.

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