Single-center Prospective Evaluation of Sickle Cell Patient Care in the CHU Brugmann Emergency Department
Single-center Prospective Evaluation of Sickle Cell Patient Care in the CHU Brugmann Emergency Department
Sickle Cell Disease is a serious disease that is life-threatening for patients being
 homozygous for the SS form or heterozygous for the SC or bthal forms. The CHU Brugmann
 hospital currently regularly treats about 70 homozygous adult patients and this number is in
 constant augmentation. The age average of the patients is below 30. The hospital developed a
 close collaboration with the Queen Fabiola Kids University Hospital to optimize the
 transition of young sickle cell patients from the pediatric to the adult network.

 The emergency care of sickle cell patients remains a source of worry. Even with a correct
 treatment (Hydroxy-urea or exsanguineous transfusions), patients suffer from frequent sickle
 cell disease crisis when stress or infection cause hemolysis. The pain level is intolerable
 and causes emergency hospital admission (2 to 3 crisis per patient per year on average). The
 crisis are more frequent with poor compliance to the treatments.

 There are several obstacles to the rapid and optimal management of these patients:

 -  fear of causing addiction to heavy pain releaf products (high dosis of morphine)

 -  lack of biological parameters for the determination of the crisis severity.

 The prognostic value of the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level in a vaso-occlusive crisis was
 recently stressed while activation of the coagulation, translated by the elevation of various
 parameters including the rate of DD dimers, seemed associated with clinical complications.
 The deleterious role of increased oxidative stress has also been recently demonstrated in
 patients with sickle cell disease, opening new therapeutic avenues.

 This study aims to prospectively evaluate the management of sickle cell patients being
 admitted in the emergency department for a vaso-occlusive crisis. The level of satisfaction
 of the patients will be measured.

 The investigators will also evaluate the predictive value of several routine biological
 parameters regarding the severity of the crisis, including the values of nitrous albumin
 (PNA) as marker of oxydative stress. This last dosage will be made in collaboration with the
 team of Dr Wayenberg and Pr Bottari in Grenoble.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Any sickle cell disease patient being admitted inside the Emergency Department of the
 Brugmann Hospital for a vaso-occlusive crisis, having signed the informed consent form
 and being able to fill in the analogic visual questionnaire (EVA).

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients not being able to sign the informed consent form or fill in the analogic
 visual questionnaire (EVA)