Management of Sickle Cell Pain

Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, named for the C-shaped “sickle” appearance of a patient’s red blood cells. SCD affects millions of people throughout the world and is particularly common among those whose ancestors came from Sub-Saharan Africa, Spanish-speaking regions in the Western Hemisphere, Saudi Arabia, India, and Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Approximately 100,000 people in the US suffer from SCD, where SCD appears in one of 365 African-American births. When the sickle-shaped cells travel through small blood vessels, they get stuck and clog the blood flow, causing pain which can be a first indicator of other serious problems such as infection, acute chest syndrome, and stroke. Managing acute and chronic pain and understanding how pain relates to the disease and its related health problems is consequently an important but thorny concern for pain physicians, hematologists, pediatricians, and primary care clinicians. The sixth volume in the "What Do I Do Now? Pain Medicine" series, Sickle Cell Pain Management provides 26 case-based, clinically useful chapters with guidance for managing acute and chronic pain in pediatric and adult sickle cell patients.

Wally R. Smith, MD, Florence Neal Cooper Smith Professor Sickle Cell Disease at Virginia Commonwealth University Health, and Medical Director of the VCU Adult Sickle Cell Medical Home, is a world authority on pain in sickle cell disease, and Executive Editor of the Journal of Sickle Cell Disease, published by Oxford University Press. He attended medical school at University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine, and finished residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Tennessee. Thokozeni Lipato, MD, is a general internist specializing in Sickle Cell Disease at Virginia Commonwealth University Health. He is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He attended medical school at University of Alabama Heersink School of Medicine, and Internal Medicine resident at the University of Minnesota.