Acetazolamide in Treatment of Sickle-Cell Anaemia

Abstract

Sickle-cell anaemia, together with other' genetically determined haemoglobinopathies, is becoming an increasingly important cause of childhood mortality in the tropics as deaths from other tropical diseases steadily decrease in number. So far no treatment has been of any avail, and the only supportive measure of any real value during a crisis has been blood transfusion. Recently, however, it has been suggested that acetazolamide (" diamox") might be a valuable therapeutic agent, since it acts as a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor and was shown in one case to diminish intravascular sickling (Hilkovitz, 1957). We would therefore like to record our experiences of the use of. this drug in three children, with' sickle-cell anaemia admitted to King George VI Hospital, Nairobi. Case Reports Case 1.-A child age 3 months was admitted with a chest infection and diarrhoea. The haemoglobin was 6.1 g./

Paediatrics in Freetown, Sierra Leone

“…It was clearly too expensive a drug for the average patient to receive prophylactically, but even this method was tried on several patients who suffered from frequent crises, but to no avail. Disappointing results have also been recorded by Macdougall and Jacob (1959) and dos Santos and Lehmann (1959).…”

“…Blood transfusions for anaemia and hypoproteinaemia were also given by the intraperitoneal route and the observations made by Macdougall (1958) on the efficacy of this method were confirmed.…”