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. 2023 Jun 18;40(8):3543–3558. doi: 10.1007/s12325-023-02545-7
Why carry out this study?
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary hemoglobinopathy associated with substantial clinical complications, including recurrent and painful vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) as well as high healthcare resource utilization (HCRU)
This real-world administrative claims-based analysis represents a novel and necessary assessment of clinical and economic outcomes in the vulnerable subset of patients with SCD with recurrent VOCs
What was learned from this study?
Patients with SCD with recurrent VOCs experienced a mean of 5.0 VOCs (standard deviation [SD] = 6.0), 2.7 inpatient admissions (SD 2.9), and 5.0 emergency department visits (SD 8.0) per patient per year
Compared to matched controls, patients with SCD with recurrent VOCs had significantly higher annual ($67,282 vs. $4134) and lifetime ($3.8 million vs. $229,000 over 50 years) healthcare costs, highlighting the need for cost-effective therapies that reduce clinical complications in this patient population