Sickle Cell Disease - Complications

Accurate and continually updated assessment of pain determined by patient input and participation is at the crux of effective care for children with sickle cell disease. Often, however, patients are not given the treatment they require. According to one study, for example, 71% of children were inadequately treated for their pain. Possible reasons for this are as follows:

Many patients, their families, and even doctors are hesitant to use opioids aggressively because of fear of addiction. This fear, however, is nearly always unwarranted. Addiction occurs in only about 1 - 3% of patients with sickle cell disease who are taking opioids.
Many doctors do not understand the nature of sickle cell pain. For example, early phases of sickle cell crisis can cause severe pain before test results confirm a diagnosis of a crisis. In such cases, health professionals may question the patient's self-reporting and withhold appropriate pain medication.
Patients may behave normally (e.g., talking on the phone, sleeping) and not appear to be in pain, but have actually developed coping behaviors to allow them to function in spite of severe pain.
Children and adults report pain differently, with children tending to report less pain than they feel. (One way of determining the severity of pain that a child feels is to show pictures of faces demonstrating degrees of pain and asking the child to point to the one that best expresses his or her experience.)
Many patients use emergency rooms of large hospitals for treating acute pain. Waiting times are long and there is no single health care provider who knows the patient and can offer consistent assessment and management of pain.

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Adult patients and parents of children with the disease should insist on aggressive pain-relief treatment. If doctors show any reluctance to administer medications after the onset of pain, patients or caregivers should not hesitate to seek a more responsive health care professional.

Opioids. For severe pain, the patient must be hospitalized and treated with strong painkillers, usually opioids. Opioids are generally given orally to adults and adolescents and intravenously to children. Nevertheless, there are exceptions. Older patients with severe pain may also require intravenous administration. Studies are also suggesting that oral medications may be effective in children.

Morphine (Dilaudid) is often used for frequent or prolonged episodes of pain. Unfortunately, its effectiveness is not as long-lasting in sickle cell patients as it is in other patients with severe pain, such as those with cancer.
The opioid meperidine (Demerol) is also used for sickle cell crises. Meperidine is not as powerful as morphine, however, and, if used for prolonged periods, may cause twitches, tremors, and disturbed mental states including seizures.
Some newer synthetic opioids (fentanyl or hydromorphone) that have a rapid onset and possibly fewer side effects than morphine. Fentanyl can be applied using a patch, which may help some patients who have difficult receiving intravenous drugs. It takes 12 hours to be effective, however.
Oral drugs, such as methadone, oral morphine, codeine, and oxycodone, are useful for home management of chronic pain and for transitional treatments between the hospital and home. Tramadol (Ultram) is a potent oral painkiller that has opioid-like properties but is not as addictive. (Dependence and abuse have been reported, however.) It may be very useful for sickle cell patients who need painkillers outside the hospital. It has minimal effects on respiratory function and has a low potential for addiction.