Objective: We aimed to contribute to the literature by investigating the causes of mortality, average life expectancies, and the clinical features that occur in this process, in relation to sickle cell disease (SCD), and by comparing the results obtained with other similar clinical studies.
Materials and Methods: This study was designed as a monocentric, cross–sectional, and retrospective study. The patient files were reviewed in terms of the age, use of hydroxyurea, use of chelators, exchange transfusion history, surgical operation history, the annual frequency of painful crises, the annual hospitalization frequency, and the annual frequency of follow–up visits which the patients have attended, the complications experienced by the patients, and the causes of mortality.
Results: Acute chest syndrome was the most prevalent cause of death of the patients included in our study. No significant difference was found between the premature death and late death groups, that is, the groups that we have determined on the basis of the SCD patients ages of death, in terms of use of hydroxyurea, use of iron chelator, and use of exchange transfusion depending on the disease.
Conclusion: Based on our findings, acute chest syndrome was the primary cause of death in SCD patients we have studied, followed by pulmonary embolism. Use of hydroxyurea, use of iron chelator, exchange transfusion history, and surgical operation history due to SCD were not found to be significantly effective when the mean age of death reported in the literature was taken as the base value.