Sickle Cell Disease in Children and Adolescents: A Review of the Historical, Clinical, and Public Health Perspective of Sub-Saharan Africa and Beyond

Table 1

Clinical presentation and complications of SCD.

System/organ	Complications
Neurological	Stroke (hemorrhagic or ischemic)
Eyes	Retinopathy
Respiratory	Acute chest syndrome, asthma
Cardiovascular	Cardiomyopathy, left ventricular hypertrophy, pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), venous thromboembolism
Spleen	Acute splenic sequestration, chronic splenomegaly
Hepato-biliary	Sickle hepatopathy (hepatic sequestration, viral hepatitis, sickle cell intrahepatic cholestasis, cholelithiasis), transfusion iron overload
Renal	Proteinuria, painless hematuria, hyposthenuria, renal impairment/failure
Genital	Priapism
Bones and joints	Acute vaso-occlusive pain crisis, chronic pain, avascular necrosis, aplastic crisis, multifocal osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, fronto-occipital bossing, gnathopathy
Skin	Chronic leg ulcers
Other	Infections, girdle/mesenteric crisis, delayed growth and puberty, jaundice, pallor, depression, anxiety, and poor academic performance

References: [32, 34, 39, 46, 48, 49, 80, 83].