Hey everybody. This is Steve Carroll, and this is the EM Basic Podcast. Today's episode is on the

evaluation and management of sickle cell disease in the emergency department. Dr. Jared Walker,

a third-year EM resident at the University of Florida, Jacksonville, has written and recorded

this excellent review of sickle cell disease. This episode will discuss how to properly assess patients with

sickle cell, how to order the right labs and imaging, what red flags look out for, how to

control sickle cell pain, how to catch the various complications of sickle cell, and proper

patient disposition. With that, let's get started on sickle cell disease by Dr. Jared Walker.

Hello everyone and welcome to E.M. Basic. My name is Jared Walker, and I'm currently at PGOI-3

at the University of Florida and Jacksonville Emergency Medicine Program. I want to thank Steve

Carroll and all you listeners for having me on the podcast. I've been a longtime listener, and it's

truly an honor to be able to contribute to the EM Basic

Project. Today, we're going to talk about the emergency management of sickle cell anemia.

We'll discuss the approach to a patient presenting with the sickle cell pain crisis.

We'll do our view of some of the can't-miss diagnosis when patients present with sickle cell pain

and the overall management of acute pain crises as well as acute chest syndrome. Patients with sickle cell pain and the overall management of acute pain crises as well as acute chest

syndrome. Patients with sickle cell anemia present a unique challenge to emergency physicians.

They are patients who are high risk for a number of complications, including sepsis, pulmonary

embolism, and acute chest syndrome, just to name a few. They can present to the emergency

department fairly frequently,

and it's easy to anchor on the diagnosis of a typical vaso-ocluclusive crisis

or opioid-seeking behavior.

Both of those should be diagnosis of exclusion,

...