to boost it back up and keep it at a good level.”
This infusion process is being monitored. If the track record of the infusions ever gets to a point where no one has reactions, it’s the hope that future infusions could eventually be given at home, but they are not there yet.
Right now, infusions are given at infusion centers where you are with a full medical team, resuscitation equipment, allergy reaction treatment all things available if needed.
Dialysis Centers are places that could be used to give the IV infusion because they attach IVs to patients, but a better fit, according to Dr. Hsu, are places where chemotherapy or infusions of other antibody medicines are given. “A lot of diseases have these antibody type medicines, some GI [gastrointestinal] diseases like IBD [inflammatory bowel disease], some arthritis type conditions and some immune conditions. They all have similar kinds of treatments that are given once a month or once every two months with an IV infusion and you have to watch for a reaction and allergic problems.”
Most cancer centers have infusion rooms. At the University of Illinois-Chicago where Dr. Hsu practices, there is one for adults and one for pediatrics.
Going to these types of places is easier than going to an emergency room. But now, there are some places that specialize in pain treatment. Instead of the emergency room or other places, you go to a place that specializes in sickle pain: sickle cell pain centers or sickle acute care centers.
At these centers, everyone on the staff knows what to do for sickle cell straightforward pain, and they also know how to recognize other sickle cell problems (like acute chest syndrome) that require more than just pain medications. It’s an expert disease-focused center.
There are very few of these pain centers. Chicago only has one for adults at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Most states have none. “People travel a considerable way to get there, but we get as fast a pain treatment as we can do. Still not as fast as we would like, but there are still barriers of the check-in process, and COVID testing, getting an IV and things like that, but we would have familiarity with this person, we know their usual treatment plans, be able to get labs results swiftly and be comfortable with how to watch for other sickle cell problems. So, these [sickle cell pain centers] are able to give people an alternative to going to this hustle-bustle emergency room. We hope this is part of the new definition for what a sickle cell center is,” states Dr. Hsu.