Category: Expert Pieces
Types of Nurses that Care for Sickle Cell Patients
Contributor: Dr. Keith Quirolo Bedside nurses have more contact with patients in the hospital than any other provider. They spend their entire day physically, emotionally, and technically caring for from two to six patients depending on the degree of care needed. Nurses can be the primary nurse provider through an entire hospitalization or on successive…
Sickle Cell and Pulse Oximeter Accuracy
Sickle Cell and Pulse Oximeter Accuracy: What the new FDA warning means for individuals living with sickle cell disease By Dr. Stephen Boateng, Director of Research – Sickle Cell 101 Image courtesy of ScienceDirect.com If you have ever been to a clinic for a regular check up or even had to go to the emergency…
The Many Faces of Sickle Cell Pain
Sickle cell pain syndromes include a triumvirate of acute, chronic and neuropathic pain that occur sequentially or simultaneously with age. Unlike other diseases associated with pain such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and complex sympathetic dystrophy, sickle cell acute pain manifests itself in infancy and continues to recur throughout the life span of the affected…
Transplant versus Current Standard of Care for Sickle Cell Disease
The decision to perform a progenitor cell transplant (bone marrow transplant) for sickle cell disease is based on the historical context that sickle cell disease is life-threatening, and historically (prior to the use of hydroxyurea and chronic red blood cell transfusions) there have been no options for medical therapies that will decrease the progression of…
Vaso-occlusive pain episodes in sickle cell disease and menstruation: Is there a common connection?
I. Advancements in the Field of Sickle Cell Disease The field of sickle cell disease has undergone many medical advancements over the past 40 years, including early detection of the disease with newborn screening, improved management of vaso-occlusive events, such as acute pain episodes and acute chest syndrome, early identification of neurological complications, and widespread…
Hydroxyurea Management in Patients with Sickle Cell Anemia
While sickle cell anemia was first reported by Dr. James Herrick more than 100 years ago1, there remains only one U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug for patients with sickle cell anemia, hydroxyurea. Sickle cell anemia is caused by an inherited mutation where the red blood cells are transformed from a flexible donut-shaped cell…