• Uttam Kumar Soren, Pradeep Kumar Mohanty, Satyabrata Meher, Sunil Kumar Sukla, and Mrutyunjay Hiregoudar.
• Department of Medicine, Sickle Cell Institute, Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences & Research, Sambalpur, Odisha, India.
• Indian J Med Res. 2022 Jul 1; 156 (1): 122129122-129.

Background & ObjectivesHydroxyurea (HU) has been useful in preventing sickle cell vaso-occlusive crises (VOC). A few studies also suggest utility of HU, during acute VOC. Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is of high prevalence in western districts of Odisha State, India, and VOC is a common presentation, despite being mostly of Arab-Indian haplotype. This study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of HU on hospital stay and analgesic utilization in acute painful VOC of SCA.MethodsHomozygous sickle cell disease (HbSS) patients were categorized as cases who were receiving low-dose HU (10 mg/kg/day) and patients who were not on HU were considered as control. Days of hospital stay, analgesic utilization and visual analogue scale (VAS) score in patients were compared with that of control. Analgesics used to control pain were tramadol hydrochloride, ketorolac and diclofenac.ResultsA total of 359 homozygous sickle cell disease (SCD) patients with VOC were studied (187 patients and 172 controls). The patient group had lesser mean days of hospital stay (1.4 days less than controls, P<0.001) and required lesser days of analgesic utilization than controls (1.18 days less than controls, P<0.001). Significant differences were observed between patients and controls concerning VAS score and amount of tramadol hydrochloride, ketorolac and diclofenac utilization (P<0.05).Interpretation & ConclusionsIn this study, HU was found to have beneficial effects in acute VOC of homozygous SCD, which includes shortening the duration of hospital stay and reducing the net amount of analgesic utilization during hospitalization.

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