Sickle Cell Pain (Crisis)

You might hear your doctor call sickle crisis by its formal name - vaso-occlusive crisis. It's called that because the crisis is caused by blocked, or occluded, blood vessels. The outbreaks of pain are one of the symptoms of sickle cell disease, a group of blood disorders.

If you have it, your red blood cells look like a C-shaped farm tool called a sickle. Normal red blood cells look a little bit like doughnuts without a hole. They move easily in your bloodstream. The sickle-shaped cells are rigid and sticky and they can block the flow in your small blood vessels. That's what causes the pain of a sickle cell crisis.

Symptoms:

The pain you feel in a sickle cell crisis is often in one or a few areas such as your bones, legs, hips, lower back, belly or chest. Some people have pain and throbbing over their whole body. How intense the pain gets, and how long it lasts, varies a lot from person to person. It can be mild or severe and can last from an hour to more than a week. Sometimes you might need to go to the emergency room and need to stay in the hospital for a day or two.

During a sickle cell crisis, your heart may beat faster or your blood pressure may go up. Once in awhile you may have redness or swelling in the areas that are painful.

Besides episodes of pain, you can have other symptoms from sickle cell disease, such as:

• Feeling tired
• Short of breath and dizzy
• Headache
• Feeling cold in your hands and feet
• Yellow color of your skin and eyes

Causes:

A sickle cell crisis starts when your sickle-shaped red blood cells plug up some of your small blood vessels. The blockage reduces blood flow and cuts down the amount of oxygen that's delivered to your body's tissues.

Experts believe that certain triggers may help set off a sickle cell crisis, including:

• Infections
• Severe dehydration
• Exposure to very high or very low temperatures, or rapid change in temperature
• High altitudes, where oxygen levels are low

Treatment:

If the pain from your sickle cell crisis is mild, painkillers that you buy at a drugstore may be all that you need. Some examples are ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen. For severe pain, your doctor may prescribe strong painkillers called opioids, such as morphine, hydrocodone and oxycodone. These pill-based medications are not without side effects due to systemic absorption, when drugs travel throughout the bloodstream.

BioMed specializes in formulating topical prescription pain creams, which provide powerful pain relief at the site of pain, while avoiding the side effects that are common with pill-based pain medications. Look for a doctor who has a lot of experience in treating sickle cell disease, such as a hematologist (a doctor who specializes in blood diseases), and ask them how BioMed’s topical prescription pain medications can help relieve your pain. Here’s an example of a commonly prescribed formula for sickle cell crisis:

BioMed’s Recommended Formulation:

For more information:

1 - WebMD article, Sickle Cell Crisis:
http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/sickle-cell-crisis

2 - eMedicineHealth.com article, Sickle Cell Disease:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sickle_cell_crisis/article_em.htm

3 - Mayo Clinic article, Sickle Cell Anemia:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sickle-cell-anemia/basics/treatment/con-20019348