Download – Sickle Cell Disease and Anaesthesia

Sickle cell disease is a genetically inherited abnormality of haemoglobin in which valine (an amino acid) replaces glutamine at the sixth position on the beta chains of the haemoglobin molecule. This haemoglobin is termed Haemoglobin S and when it becomes deoxygenated it comes out of solution forming long crystals called “tactoids” which distort the red cell. the effcets may be precipitated by anaesthesia.

Karen Henderson