A rare case of avascular necrosis in sickle cell trait: a case report

BMC Hematology
William J Sanders

Abstract

Sickle cell trait is usually an asymptomatic presentation of a patient with slightly different hemoglobin molecule makeup than normal. It is similar to a more serious disease, sickle cell disease, in which a person's hemoglobin is mutated in such a way that causes their red blood cells to easily change shape in certain environmental and internal states; this causes red blood cells to adhere to the walls and occlude the lumen of the arteries in which they travel, leading to downstream effects secondary to ischemia. Sickle cell trait does not have these ischemic effects, usually. In this case, a young African American female patient presents to the clinic with severe right hip pain. Her past medical history includes sickle cell trait and asthma. She has not been symptomatic of her asthma for years and is not on therapy for it. The pain has lasted for several months and has not improved with anti-inflammatory medication. There is severe pain with internal and external rotation of the hip. The neurovascularity of the lower extremities is intact bilaterally. MRI of the femur shows stage 2 or 3 avascular necrosis of the femoral head, while X-rays of the femur are unremarkable. Non weight-bearing for several weeks was unsuccessful; sh...Continue Reading

References

Mar 1, 1995·The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. American Volume·M A Mont, D S Hungerford
Dec 7, 2010·Lancet·David C ReesMark T Gladwin
Jan 18, 2011·Hematology·Nigel S Key, Vimal K Derebail
Jul 6, 2015·Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine·Kalpit N ShahRoy K Aaron

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
total hip arthroplasty
electrophoresis

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