Critical Care Nursing: Sickle Cell Anemia
Critical Care Nursing
10/15/2009
Sickle cell anemia affects millions of people worldwide. Sickle cell anemia is a disease in which your body produces abnormally shaped red blood cells. They don't last as long as normal, round red blood cells, which leads to anemia. Sickle cells contain abnormal hemoglobin that causes the cells to have a sickle shape. Sickle-shaped cells don’t move easily through your blood vessels. They’re stiff and sticky and tend to form clumps and get stuck in the blood vessels. The sickle cells also get stuck in blood vessels, blocking blood flow. This can cause pain and organ damage. Sickle cell disease is caused by a mutation in the
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Hand-foot syndrome may be the first sign of sickle cell anemia in infants. Hypoplastic/aplastic crisis: May be secondary to severe (usually viral) infection or folic acid deficiency, resulting in cessation of production of RBCs and bone marrow. Both children and adults who have sickle cell anemia have a hard time fighting infections. This is because sickle cell anemia can damage the spleen. During a Splenic Crisis sickled cells get trapped in the spleen. This causes the spleen to enlarge and leads to anemia and causes it to not work properly. If this happens, the patient may need blood transfusions until their body can make more cells and recover. Infants and young children who have damaged spleens are more likely to get infections that can kill them. Pneumonia is the most common cause of death in young children who have sickle cell anemia. Meningitis, influenza, and hepatitis are other infections that are common in people who have sickle cell anemia. In Hyperhemolytic crisis: Reticulocytes are increased in peripheral blood; and bone marrow is hyperplastic. It is characterized by anemia and jaundice. Sequestration crisis (more commonly occurs in infants): Massive, sudden erythrostasis with pooling of blood in the viscera (splenomegaly), resulting in hypovolemic shock/possible death. This crisis occurs in patients with intact splenic function. There are many complications of
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.
Hypovolemic shock is an urgent condition of rapid reduction of circulatory volume in the body, which can be created due to blood or plasma or body fluids loss (Kettley & Marsh, 2016, p. 31; Perner & Backer, 2014, p. 613). Blood loss can be induced by internal or external injuries, excessive perspiration or diuretics (Craft & et al, 2015, p. 852). Maureen Hardy’s hypovolemia has been precipitated by hematemesis.
Sickle cell anemia occurs when a person inherits two abnormal genes (one from each parent) that cause their red blood cells to change shape. Instead of being flexible and round, these cells are more rigid and curved in the shape of the farm tool known as a sickle - that's where the disease gets its name. The shape
Sickle Cell anemia is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, or a collection of recessive genetic disorders characterized by a hemoglobin variant called Hb S. Normal red blood cells are round like doughnuts, and they move through small blood tubes in the body to deliver oxygen. Sickle red blood cells become hard, sticky and shaped like sickles used to cut wheat. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood tube, they clog the flow and break apart. This can cause pain, damage and a low blood count, or anemia. There is a substance in the red cell called hemoglobin that carries oxygen inside the cell. One little change in this substance causes the hemoglobin to form long hard rods in the red cell when it gives
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
In this article, sickle cell anemia is defined as a hereditary disease that destroys red blood cells by causing them take on an elongated and rigid "sickle" shape. In addition, a different type of hemoglobin called Hemoglobin S, is the protein in red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. This protein starts to wrap around other red blood cells when oxygen is lacking to form a helical shape. Once this happens the cells cluster together and elongate and the cells start to "sickle". A person who has sickle cell anemia can only get it if both of their parents carry the sickle cell trait, if only one parent has the trait then there children are at risk for having the trait.
Sickle-cell Anemia is a genetic disorder that causes sever pain in the lower back, legs, arms, abdomen, and chest. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body. The body uses oxygen to make energy. Inside the red blood cell is a protein called hemoglobin, which hooks on to the oxygen. People with sickle-cell anemia have abnormal hemoglobin known as hemoglobin S. Hemoglobin S changes the blood cells into the shape of a sickle. These abnormal sickle cells stick to the blood vessel walls causing blockages. These blockages do not allow blood to flow. This is what causes the pain. People get sickle cell disease when a parent has a mutated hemoglobin gene. Their child has a chance of inheriting the sickle-cell trait or getting sickle-cell Anemia.
Approximately 100,000 people suffer from Sickle Cell Anemia everyday and about 2 million people have the Sickle Cell trait in the United States alone. Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting 70,000 to 80,000 Americans (Pruthi 2018). The disease is estimated to occur in 1 in 500 African Americans and 1 in 1,000 to 1,400 Hispanic Americans (Pruthi 2018). Sickle cell anemia is an inherited form of anemia, a condition in which there aren't enough healthy red blood cells to carry adequate oxygen throughout your body normally, your red blood cells are flexible and round, moving easily through your blood vessels. In sickle cell anemia, the red blood cells become
The disease is caused by a mutated version of the gene that help makes hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Sickle cell is a disorder in the blood caused by abnormal hemoglobin proteins. The abnormal hemoglobin protein caused sickle cell shaped red blood cells. The sickle cell red blood cells are crescent shapes and can clog up very easily in blood canals. In the diagram to the right it shows how a mutation causes a change in the amino acid.
Sickle Cell Disease or also widely known as Sickle Cell Anemia is a genetic mutation caused in red blood cells destroys its own cells within and reshaping the cell wall resembling crescent or sickle shape; getting its name of the sickle cell disease. These sickled shaped cells attempt to perform its normal function of circulating oxygenated and deoxygenated RBC and gets lodged in small vessels causing vaso-occlusion. Where vaso-occlusive take effect, rest of the body is not receiving oxygen becoming oxygen deprived results in acute and chronic pain and organ damage (Valerie Mann-Jiles, 2015). This disease a lifelong condition affecting not just the person carrying the disease but the whole family. Treating this disease
Sickle Cell Anemia is a genetic disorder dealing with the hemoglobin within the red blood cells the individual has hemoglobin S (1). This causes the red blood cell to become gelatinous when deoxygenated (2).
Sickle cell is a blood disease. People with sickle cell anemia have crescent moon shaped blood cells that are hard and sticky. When the Sickle cells move through blood tubes, they can clog blood flow and break apart. This can cause main, damage, and a low blood count. The symptoms of the disease are not life threatening, however are not enjoyable. Sickle cell anemia can cause you to experience dizziness, headaches, and shortness of breath. Your skin may also turn more yellow or pale than it usually is. Sickle cell is an inherited disease. It is an unpreventable disease that you are born with. If you have a sickle cell gene, you do not have sickle cell, however your children have a 25% chance of having sickle cell anemia. This blood disorder can cause pain and discomfort but it is unlikely that your life will be in danger if you have the disease.
Sickle cell disease is categorized as an autosomal recessive disease. That means in order for one to inherit the disease, they must inherit two recessive alleles for sickle cell disease, or hemoglobin S gene. Having only one recessive allele makes you a carrier. The disorder causes the affected person’s red blood cells to disfigure into a crescent or sickle, which differs from the normal red blood cells that shaped into a doughnut. Sometimes, cells in a sickle shape cannot get through the narrow passageways of the blood vessels as easily as normal red blood cells. This blocks blood from entering and oxygen can’t reach the affected person’s organs. It can also crystallize and block arteries and
Sickle cell anemia is an anemia that is inherited and mostly affects people whose heritage can be traced back to places where malaria was prevalent. There are approximately 100,000 Americans that have the disease and many more with the trait. Several of my family members are afflicted by this medical condition that causes red blood cells to take on an irregular shape.
Sickle Cell Anemia is a group of disorders that cause red blood cells to become misshapen and break down. 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. A person that is diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, their blood cells start to become clogged, causing blood clots, 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.