Summary
Sickle cell disease (Zia & Rafique) is a hereditary blood disorder that is caused by a mutation in the hemoglobin genes. The disease represents a major health problem in high prevalence countries such as Saudi Arabia (SA) due to the associated high mortality rate. To date, there has been no studies discuss the current status of SCD in SA, its impact on health care cost and the major factors associated with high utilization of health care services. This paper aimed to review articles regarding the current status of SCD in SA compared to the the United States (US) and to gain a better understanding of the prevalence of SCD, health care utilization rate, factors associated with frequent visits, current interventional methods to prevent …show more content…
In case of dehydration or inadequate oxygen supply, the muted red blood cells will be sickled-like shape and start to adhere to blood vessels’ walls (Rees, Williams, & Gladwin, 2010). This process leads to further complications due to occluded vessels. Damage of the vital organs and activation of the inflammatory process are some of the most common complications (Rees et al., 2010). As a result, patients frequently complain of severe pain or “ sickle crises”. Usually, these complications of SCD can be medically prevented by vaccination, antibiotic administration, blood transfusion and other medical interventions (WHO, …show more content…
Such information is of great importance in counseling patients, in anticipating dangerous clinical situations, and in designing management programs to reduce the mortality in patients with SCD. Finally, this paper highlighted the current literature results regarding the burden of SCD in SA and the overall the health care system gaps as well as the need of more focus research that identify the prevalence of SCD in SA, factors associated with patients death, high utilization of ED services and more cost effective programs to control and manage the disease in the country compared to the US. The following limitations have to me discussed. First, the study search was limited to English language. Perhaps there were published studies about SCD in SA that were written in Arabia only. Second, most of the included studies were retrospective studies, which examined previously collected data and the researcher had no control in managing that process. Finally, there were very few articles identified in the literature to serve the purpose of this paper. Despite these limitations, the paper identified important findings to other researcher interested in the
Sickle cell disease (Zia & Rafique) is a hereditary blood disorder that is caused by a mutation in the hemoglobin genes. The disease represents a major health problem in high prevalence countries such as Saudi Arabia (SA) due to the associated high mortality rate. To date, there has been no studies discuss the current status of SCD in SA, its impact on health care cost and the major factors associated with high utilization of health care services. This paper aimed to review articles regarding the current status of SCD in SA compared to the the United States (US) and to gain a better understanding of the prevalence of SCD, health care utilization rate, factors associated with frequent visits, current interventional methods to prevent …show more content…
In case of dehydration or inadequate oxygen supply, the muted red blood cells will be sickled-like shape and start to adhere to blood vessels’ walls (Rees, Williams, & Gladwin, 2010). This process leads to further complications due to occluded vessels. Damage of the vital organs and activation of the inflammatory process are some of the most common complications (Rees et al., 2010). As a result, patients frequently complain of severe pain or “ sickle crises”. Usually, these complications of SCD can be medically prevented by vaccination, antibiotic administration, blood transfusion and other medical interventions (WHO, …show more content…
Such information is of great importance in counseling patients, in anticipating dangerous clinical situations, and in designing management programs to reduce the mortality in patients with SCD. Finally, this paper highlighted the current literature results regarding the burden of SCD in SA and the overall the health care system gaps as well as the need of more focus research that identify the prevalence of SCD in SA, factors associated with patients death, high utilization of ED services and more cost effective programs to control and manage the disease in the country compared to the US. The following limitations have to me discussed. First, the study search was limited to English language. Perhaps there were published studies about SCD in SA that were written in Arabia only. Second, most of the included studies were retrospective studies, which examined previously collected data and the researcher had no control in managing that process. Finally, there were very few articles identified in the literature to serve the purpose of this paper. Despite these limitations, the paper identified important findings to other researcher interested in the