Acute Painful Crisis In Sickle Cell Disease: Severity Assessment

The lack of an objective way of assessing the severity of sickle cell painful crises prompted this study. Adult sickle cell disease patients who presented to a tertiary hospital with acute painful episodes over a nine-month period were studied. The patients' vital signs at presentation, the pain scale and the effect of pain on the patients' daily activities were used in association with the doctor's clinical assessment of severity. The effect of the pain on daily activities was closely associated with the doctors' and the patients' assessments (p=0.02).The systolic blood pressure and the respiratory rate were good indicators of the severity of pain. We suggest that the pain scale, the effect of pain on daily activities and the the vital signs be used in conjunction with the doctor's assessment in determining the severity of the painful crises.