What Is a Sickle Cell Crisis?
In a sickle cell crisis, blood flow blockage from stiff, sticky red blood cells causes severe pain.
“Think of the blood vessels like a city highway,” says Elizabeth Margolskee, MD, MPH, a clinical pathologist and an associate professor of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
“In normal conditions, red blood cells flow smoothly through arteries and veins like small cars on the interstate,” says Dr. Margolskee. “Normal red blood cells are round, compact, and flexible. They circulate easily and deliver oxygen. During a sickle cell crisis, it’s almost as if the red blood cells transform into long, rigid trucks that can’t get around so easily and stop the flow of traffic.”
Each time this happens — especially in the bones — it feels very painful, says Sanjay Shah, MD, a hematologist, the section chief of hematology, and the director of the sickle cell and hemoglobinopathy program at Phoenix Children’s in Arizona. A sickle cell crisis can be triggered by factors like dehydration, infections, and stress.
You can prevent some crises by avoiding these triggers.
But once you’re in pain, you have options for treatment.
“The majority of patients with sickle cell disease manage their painful crises at home,” says Jennie Law, MD, a hematologist-oncologist and the associate section chief for classical hematology and sickle cell disease at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore. But if your pain keeps getting worse, you can get a higher level of treatment at a medical facility.
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