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Treatment

Bone marrow transplant, also known as stem cell transplant, offers the only potential cure for sickle cell anemia. It’s usually reserved for people younger than age 16 because the risks increase for people older than 16. Finding a donor is difficult, and the procedure has serious risks associated with it, including death.

As a result, treatment for sickle cell anemia is usually aimed at avoiding crises, relieving symptoms and preventing complications. Babies and children age 2 and younger with sickle cell anemia should make frequent visits to a doctor. Children older than 2 and adults with sickle cell anemia should see a doctor at least once a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Treatments might include medications to reduce pain and prevent complications, and blood transfusions, as well as a bone marrow transplant.

Medications

Medications used to treat sickle cell anemia include:

• Antibiotics. Children with sickle cell anemia may begin taking the antibiotic penicillin when they’re about 2 months old and continue taking it until they’re at least 5 years old. Doing so helps prevent infections, such as pneumonia, which can be life-threatening to an infant or child with sickle cell anemia.As an adult, if you’ve had your spleen removed or had pneumonia, you might need to take penicillin throughout your life.
• Pain-relieving medications. To relieve pain during a sickle cell crisis, your doctor might prescribe pain medications.
• Hydroxyurea (Droxia, Hydrea). When taken daily, hydroxyurea reduces the frequency of painful crises and might reduce the need for blood transfusions and hospitalizations. Hydroxyurea seems to work by stimulating production of fetal hemoglobin — a type of hemoglobin found in newborns that helps prevent the formation of sickle cells.Hydroxyurea increases your risk of infections, and there is some concern that long-term use of this drug might cause problems later in life for people who take it for many years. More study is needed.

  Your doctor can help you determine if this drug might be beneficial for you or your child. Don’t take the drug if you’re pregnant.

Assessing stroke risk

Using a special ultrasound machine (transcranial), doctors can learn which children have a higher risk of stroke. This painless test, which uses sound waves to measure blood flow, can be used on children as young as 2 years. Regular blood transfusions can decrease stroke risk.

Vaccinations to prevent infections

Childhood vaccinations are important for preventing disease in all children. They’re even more important for children with sickle cell anemia because their infections can be severe.

Your doctor will make sure your child receives all of the recommended childhood vaccinations. Vaccinations, such as the pneumococcal vaccine and the annual flu shot, are also important for adults with sickle cell anemia.

Blood transfusions

In a red blood cell transfusion, red blood cells are removed from a supply of donated blood, then given intravenously to a person with sickle cell anemia.

Blood transfusions increase the number of normal red blood cells in circulation, helping to relieve anemia. In children with sickle cell anemia at high risk of stroke, regular blood transfusions can decrease the risk. Transfusions can also be used to treat other complications of sickle cell anemia, or they can be given to prevent complications.

Blood transfusions carry some risk, including infection and excess iron buildup in your body. Because excess iron can damage your heart, liver and other organs, people who undergo regular transfusions might need treatment to reduce iron levels.

Bone marrow transplant

A bone marrow transplant, also called a stem cell transplant, involves replacing bone marrow affected by sickle cell anemia with healthy bone marrow from a donor. The procedure usually uses a matched donor, such as a sibling, who doesn’t have sickle cell anemia. For many, donors aren’t available. But stem cells from umbilical cord blood might be an option.

Because of the risks associated with a bone marrow transplant, the procedure is recommended only for people, usually children, who have significant symptoms and problems from sickle cell anemia.

If a donor is found, the person with sickle cell anemia receives radiation or chemotherapy to destroy or reduce his or her bone marrow stem cells. Healthy stem cells from the donor are injected intravenously into the bloodstream of the person with sickle cell anemia, where they migrate to the bone marrow and begin generating new blood cells.

The procedure requires a lengthy hospital stay. After the transplant, you’ll receive drugs to help prevent rejection of the donated stem cells. Even so, your body might reject the transplant, leading to life-threatening complications.

Treating sickle cell complications

Doctors treat most complications of sickle cell anemia as they occur. Treatment might include antibiotics, vitamins, blood transfusions, pain-relieving medicines, other medications and possibly surgery, such as to correct vision problems or to remove a damaged spleen.

Experimental treatments

Scientists are studying new treatments for sickle cell anemia, including:

• Gene therapy. Researchers are exploring whether inserting a normal gene into the bone marrow of people with sickle cell anemia will result in normal hemoglobin. Scientists are also exploring the possibility of turning off the defective gene while reactivating another gene responsible for the production of fetal hemoglobin — a type of hemoglobin found in newborns that prevents sickle cells from forming.Potential treatments using gene therapy are a long way off, however.
• Nitric oxide. People with sickle cell anemia have low levels of nitric oxide in their blood. Nitric oxide is a gas that helps keep blood vessels open and reduces the stickiness of red blood cells. Treatment with inhaled nitric oxide might prevent sickle cells from clumping together. Studies on nitric oxide have shown little benefit so far.
• Drugs to boost fetal hemoglobin production. Researchers are studying various drugs to devise a way to boost the production of fetal hemoglobin. This is a type of hemoglobin that stops sickle cells from forming.