Acute surgical illness in patients with sickle cell anemia. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Acute abdominal pain frequently accompanies sickle cell crisis. The character of this pain may be difficult to discriminate from acute surgical processes such as acute cholecystitis or appendicitis. Seven patients with sickle cell disease presenting with abdominal pain underwent surgery. Review of the medical records demonstrated a characteristic pattern of presentation consistent from crisis to crisis. When patients with known sickle cell disease present with symptoms of abdominal pain, (1) the character of the symptoms, (2) precipitating events, (3) white blood cell count, (4) bilirubin, and (5) fever should be compared with those characteristics in previous crises. Deviation from previous patterns suggests an illness caused by problems other than sickel cell crisis.

publication date

  • July 1, 1981

Research

keywords

  • Abdomen, Acute
  • Anemia, Sickle Cell

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0019511739

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1016/s0002-9610(81)80019-0

PubMed ID

  • 7258505

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 142

issue

  • 1