Sickle Cell Disease

State-of-the-Art Sickle Cell Disease Care

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Unmatched Sickle Cell Disease Care in Cleveland

Sickle Cell Disease is a blood disorder inherited from parents who are carriers of the sickle cell gene and is the most common inherited blood disease in the United States. With Sickle Cell, red blood cells are shaped like a half-moon and struggle to move through the blood vessels, causing pain and interfering with oxygen delivery throughout the body. At MetroHealth, we focus on early treatment to prevent lasting damage, and supportive care to decrease pain.

Sickle Cell Disease is common among people of Black, Arab, or Indian descent.

Symptoms include:

Pain in the joints or sudden chest pain
Dizziness
Fatigue
Difficulty breathing

Fever
Swelling of hands and feet
Frequent infections
Vision problems, including yellowing of the eye

Preventing lasting damage through early diagnoses

Sickle Cell Disease is diagnosed through a blood test. In the United States, screening is provided at birth, and pediatricians work with hematologists to identify when to begin treatment. It is important to identify Sickle Cell Disease early to decrease infections and prevent organ damage.

Personalized Sickle Cell Disease Treatment

If you have Sickle Cell Disease, it’s important to find the right treatment to limit pain and reduce your risk for stroke or other complications.

At MetroHealth, we provide simple transfusions, partial exchanges, and total exchanges to provide treatment that fits your needs.

Simple transfusions

Typically for children starting treatment, simple blood transfusions are completed monthly for patients with multiple pain crises a year—usually if you are hospitalized 3 times in a year. Patients received non-sickle blood, and this process causes less strain on children than total exchange treatments.

Partial exchange

The partial exchange program at MetroHealth sets our Sickle Cell Disease treatment apart. Exchanges happen in an outpatient clinic every two weeks, and the exchange removes sickled cells and iron, exchanging it for blood with non-sickled cells and less iron. Patients who participate in partial exchange have similar results as total exchange patients without hospitalization or a central line.

Total exchange

Total exchanges happen once per month, and our radiology oncology team inserts a central line that allows your blood to run through a machine that cleans it of iron and sickle cells, replacing it with non sickle blood.

MetroHealth can also recommend gene therapy and bone marrow transplant options to treat—and potentially cure—Sickle Cell Disease.

A Lifetime of Support

Sickle Cell Disease must be managed throughout a patient’s life. Our goal is to keep the percentage of sickle cells below 30%, and medication can help once transfusions and exchanges have reduced the amount of crises.

Sickle Cell in the Home

At MetroHealth, we’re dedicated to finding innovative ways to care for you. Through our Sickle Cell in the Home program, hospitalized Sickle Cell Disease patients are discharged 4-8 days early to continue inpatient care and pain management in their own home.

Advancing Care Through Research

At MetroHealth, every oncologist participates in research, bringing advances in cancer care directly to your bedside. We address health disparities by enrolling people from minority populations in clinical trials at more than 4 times the national average.

For more information about our studies, or to enroll in a study that might be right for you, contact our oncology team at 216-77-TREAT.

A Team Dedicated to You

The MetroHealth Cancer Institute team is setting a new standard of cancer care in northeast Ohio.

Meet the Institute Team

Our Expertise. Your Healthiest Outcome.

The MetroHealth Cancer Institute is accredited by The Commission on Cancer and The National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers.

Both accreditations are through the American College of Surgeons and reflect our team’s high level of expertise and quality care.