Sickle Cell Anemia

For a child with sickle cell disease (SCD), an acute vaso-occlusive episode can be extremely painful, often requiring admission to a hospital. Current guidelines call for aggressive pain management for SCD in the first 2 to 3 days of hospitalization, but there is little standardization in the types of analgesics used, routes of administration, and dosing schedules. Researchers followed 27 children admitted to a hospital in acute pain related to SCD. The children averaged 14 years of age, and 59% were male. On admission and once each subsequent day, the children were asked to complete a pain assessment tool and to rate their levels of worst, least, and current pain on a numerical scale from 1 to 100. The average initial pain rating was 84. The research team reviewed the nursing flowsheets to determine the frequency, dose, and route of administration of all analgesic medications given. Medication usage was evaluated with a modified Medication Quantification Scale (MQS) as a way to account for the different types of pain medications used with hospitalized SCD children and to standardize medications and dose equivalents in a pediatric population.

According to the Mayo Clinic, bone marrow transplant offers the only potential cure for sickle cell anemia. But very few people have a suitable donor for transplant.