ACUTE PAINFUL VASO-OCCLUSIVE SICKLE CELL CRISIS IN AN OPIOID TOLERANT PATIENT

Vaso-Occlusve Sickle Cell Crisis

Abstract

The clinical phenotype of sickle cell disease (SCD) is characterized by repeated vaso-occlusive events that can result in acute pain crisis, acute chest syndrome, priapism, skin ulceration, stroke, and in children splenic sequestration. Pain is by far the most common indication for hospital admission in these patients1. Sickle cell disease is prevalent in eastern and southern provinces of Saudi Arabia2. Vaso-occlusion is the single most important patho-physiological process that results in most of the acute complications of SCD.