Discussion Post
Week nine
6521, N-17 As an advanced practice nurse (APN), one will care for many patients with hematological disorders. Over the years the prognosis for these individuals has drastically improved. The purpose of this paper is to describe sickle cell anemia (SCA), evaluate the treatments, and discuss how age affects all of these things. SCA is a genetic disorder wherein a person is unable to produce normal hemoglobin A. Instead their bodies produce hemoglobin S, which differs from normal hemoglobin due to the single substitution of an amino acid in one of the two polypeptide chains (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). Hemoglobin S causes no problem as long as it is oxygenated. However, deoxygenation and dehydration cause the erythrocyte to have an elongated sickle shape. The altered erythrocytes tend to increase blood viscosity, occluding the blood vessels and decreasing blood flow. This reduction in circulation leads to pain and organ infarction. However, the sickling is typically not permanent, and the erythrocytes will regain normal shape once they are oxygenated and hydrated. Although when sickling occurs four types of crises are possible. First is a vaso-occlusive crisis, in which vasospasms cause a complete blockage of blood flow through the vessels. This blockage causes relentless pain; and if reversal of this process does not occur, thrombosis and infarction of local tissue ensue. Sequestration is the second type, and in this crisis copious
Sickle Cell Anemia is a group of disorders that cause red blood cells to become misshapen and break down. Sickle Cell Anemia affects many people all over the world; Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting 70,000 to 80,000 Americans (Ashley-Koch, Yang and Olney). Sickle Cell Anemia causes your red blood cells to be thin, stiff, and shaped like a sickle. But your red blood cells are supposed to be round and soft. When a person is diagnosed with sickle cell anemia the blood cells start to become clogged blood vessels, which can cause a great amount of health issues including: infections, stroke, and acute chest syndrome. People get sickle cell anemia by inheriting a mutated gene from both of their parents. On the down side, there is not currently an effective cure for sickle cell anemia, there are several different therapeutic approaches to treating and attempting to cure the disease and help people who are affected with sickle cell anemia better manage their symptoms. There have also been several great scientists that dedicated a lot of research to help find a cure for sickle cell anemia.
Sickle Cell Disease is an illness that affects people all across the globe. This paper will give a description of the sickness through the discussion of the causes, symptoms, and possible cures. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a "group of inherited red blood cell disorders."(1) These disorders can have various afflictions, such as pain, damage and a low blood count--Sickle Cell Anemia.
Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disorder that mostly affects people of African ancestry, but also occurs in other ethnic groups, including people who are of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent. More than 70,000 Americans have sickle cell anemia. And about 2 million Americans - and one in 12 African Americans - have sickle cell trait (this means they carry one gene for the disease, but do not have the disease itself).
Sickle cell disease is a disease that is most prevalent in people of African descent along with people of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern origin. This disease is known to affect about 70, 000 Americans and about 2 million people carry the trait (meaning that, they carry a single gene mutation).
When Malaria is present and infects red blood cells, parasites can infect cells carrying defective hemoglobin which may result in death. Allele frequency changes over time depending on the pressures or circumstances facing a particular population. African populations are especially impacted by both malaria and sickle cell anemia. Depending on the impacted population, allele frequency often shifts and well suited organisms are likely to survive and allele frequencies can increase. When a population is effected by disease or other circumstances, allele frequency may decrease or change. HbA (normal hemoglobin) and HbS (defective hemoglobin) have varying frequencies and while the HbS gene is present in populations it is
According to the 2016 edition of the Oxford dictionary, to define someone or a group of people as vulnerable means that they are susceptible to physical or emotional harm (Vulnerable, 2016). One of the most recognized populations of vulnerable people are children; furthermore, by adding an inherited disease process, that decreases the immune system, would only increase the vulnerability of the population. Children with sickle cell anemia are highly susceptible to being attacked both physically and emotionally by foreign invaders that threaten their already fragile immune systems. During the process of “making hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in our red blood cells, a defect can occur when the amino acid glutamate is replaced by valine. This simple substitution can cause the red blood cell to sometimes collapse, assuming the characteristic sickle shape. The red blood cells, normally very elastic and able to conform to the shape of tiny capillary blood vessels, become rigid and can block the blood vessels, depriving tissue of oxygen and resulting in severe pain” (Stone, 2015). Sickle cell children must endure an incredible amount of pain, many hospitalizations, a pain management regimen, and the inability to experience the normal, everyday life that most of their peers participate in each day. Health care for sickle cell children is focused toward management because there is no cure and as their bodies run out of healthy red blood
The main thing doctors do to treat sickle-cell anemia is to avoid complications. They measure the patient’s height and weight to make sure they are growing properly. The doctors also monitor blood pressure to prevent strokes. Doctors also do blood and urine tests to see if there is organ damage or kidney problems. They also do TCD testing or brain ultrasounds to prevent strokes. They also do eye examines to prevent loss of vision. Sickle-cell anemia is caused only by having two mutated hemoglobin genes.
This article discusses the nurse’s vital role for these patients in improving pain management for them. Patients who come in for sickle cell crisis in the emergency department usually wait 4 hours before being administered any pain medication. This delay is very harmful for the patient who is in a significant amount of pain. Nurses are also reluctant to administer pain medications for these patient due to the fear of patients becoming addicted to the opioids and becoming drug seekers. Early pain management and interventions decrease morbidity and mortality in these patients. The article suggests some different practices for nurses to improve how they manage pain in sickle cell patients. First, nurses should perform a rapid clinical assessment of the vaso-occlusive crisis. After the assessment, the nurse should use of an age-appropriate pain scale to determine how much pain the patient is in. Next is the pharmacologic management that is prescribed by a medical doctor. After administering the medication, the nurse should monitor the patient’s pain every 20 minutes until pain subsides and the patient is stable. The nurse should also be monitoring vital signs, hydration, and oxygen saturations. If nurses follow these practice guidelines, they will
Sickle cell anemia is one of the disease out there in the world that cannot be cured. The only thing people suffering from sickle cell can do is get treatments for the symptoms they are suffering from. Not only are there treatments, but there are also things that can be done that can prevent some of the symptoms. Some of the treatments available are different kinds of medications, vaccines, and experimental treatments. When a child suffers from sickle anemia their life could be put on line when catching an infection that may not be life threating to some who may not have that disease, so it is important for children to take antibiotics. From the antibiotics a person can take painkillers to relieve the suffer pain. A drug that is
These problems include but are not limited to breathing problems, eye problems, leg ulcers, and also organ failure(s).Patients who are known for having SCD may also have a history of having breathing problems. Patients may suffer from Pulmonary Hypertension. This results from when a patient has high blood pressure that occurs in the lungs. If this becomes too severe or goes left untreated it may be fatal. Besides having breathing problems a patient may also suffer problems with seeing. In the case that there is blood clotting in the patient’s eye this can result in the patient becoming blind. A leg ulcer usually starts to show up on the patient’s lower leg and /or ankle and may sometimes go untreated because the patient may think is just a normal scratch or cut. Leg ulcers usually are the result of poor blood circulation to that particular area. Delayed growth usually occurs in most or all patients with Sickle Cell. Another problem that sickle cell patients may have to face is organ failures. The organs that are most common to fail are the lungs, liver, kidney and spleen. The failure of these organs may stem from other health problems related to the
Sickle cell disease is a chronic condition that a person can inherit from their parents in which it effects the globular structure of the patients red blood cells. A more sickle shaped structure, which can alter a person’s blood flow, replaces the more common globular structure. This impairment in blood flow can lead to blood clots, severe debilitating pain and damage to vital organs such as the liver, kidney and spleen. This disease currently affects over 90,000 people in the United States, with the majority of them being African American and
Sickle-cell Anemia is a disorder that is typically inherited from a person's parents. Sickle-cell anemia results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin (haemoglobin S) that is found in red blood cells. In such a condition the red blood cells contort into a sickle shape. The affected cells die early which results to a shortage of healthy red blood cells and can block blood flow causing pain. The disease s caused by gene mutation through the process of substitution. In the Sickle-cell condition one Amino Acid; glutamic acid is always replaced by another acid valine. This happens in each of the two polypeptide chains of the haemoglobin molecule.This alteration results to a haemoglobin type S that is defective and is genetically
I apologize for writing without the allowance of an introduction I am Zoe Smith, your patient is my daughter named Maria who is being diagnosed with sickle cell disease. I first thought is wasn’t something important but then she started showing different symptoms like different infections, low red blood cell counts and later she started having crises, delayed growth, jaundice and strokes. Also, I researched a lot about this disease and found out that it is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern which means that we my husband and me have to give a copy of the gene. The everyday life is hard and very difficult because if she is in pain then we have to go to the hospital and make sure the pain goes away. We have tried taking
When you pass an electric charge through a solution of hemoglobin, distinct hemoglobins move different distances, depending on their composition. This technique differentiates between normal hemoglobin (A), Sickle hemoglobin (S), and other different kinds of hemoglobin (such as C, D, E,). Medical Problems Sickle cells are destroyed rapidly in the body of people with the disease causing anemia, jaundice and the formation of gallstones. The sickle cells also block the flow of blood through vessels resulting in lung tissue damage (acute chest syndrome), pain episodes (arms, legs, chest and abdomen), stroke and priapism (painful prolonged erection). It
Sickle Cell Anemia is a hereditary disease that changes the smallest and most important components of the body. A gene causes the bone marrow in the body to make sickled shapes, when this happens; it causes the red blood cell to die faster. This is what causes Hemolytic Anemia. Older children and adults with sickle cell disease may experience a few complications, or have a pattern of ongoing problems that shorten their lives. The most common and serious complications of sickle cell disease are anemia, pain, fatigue, and organ failure. Today there are many alternatives and opportunities that a sickle cell patient may consider. One outlined in this paper is the Hydroxyurea method.