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. 2025 May 4;13(5):142.
doi: 10.3390/diseases13050142.

Emergency Presentations of Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease in French Guiana

Carine Fankep Djomo  1 , Souam Nguele Sile  2 , Narcisse Elenga  1   3   4   5
Affiliations

Emergency Presentations of Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease in French Guiana

Carine Fankep Djomo et al. Diseases. .

Abstract

Background/objectives: This study aimed to estimate the proportion of pediatric emergency admissions related to sickle cell disease.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. The data were collected over a period of 9 years, from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2022.

Results: We recorded 858 emergency department visits related to sickle cell disease out of a total of 135,000 pediatric emergency department visits, giving a prevalence of 6.4 per 1000 children aged up to 18 years. The median age was 12 years (8-16) years. The average waiting time in the emergency department for children with sickle cell disease was 2 h (±1) in 2014 and 45 min (±15) in 2022. Children with sickle cell anemia were more likely than others to have been seen by a consultant in an emergency department. The most commonly associated pathology was asthma, with a frequency of 17%. The risk factors for hospitalization were an age between 5 and 10 years and a severe form of sickle cell disease.

Conclusions: The treatment of pain and fever were often delayed. This leads us to suggest that systematic prior communication between the pediatric hematologist and the emergency physician is crucial. However, there is a need to define best practices for the management of children with sickle cell disease presenting to the emergency department with a fever.

Keywords: children; emergency visits; medical education; sickle cell disease; vaso-occlusive crisis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of the number of admissions by genotype.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution according to the reason for the consultation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Annual change in the number of consultations. * December to February is the short rainy season. March to mid-April is a short summer season. The main rainy season occurs from mid-April until the end of June. The dry season lasts from mid-July until the end of November.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Annual number of emergency admissions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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