Only 3% of US sickle cell patients receive red blood cell exchange for disease, researchers find

Various factors block sufferers of disease from receiving treatment that is effective and has widespread availability

Sickle cell patients are missing out on an effective treatment despite widespread US hospital access to the technology, new research has found.

That treatment is called a red blood cell exchange, a procedure that discards a patient’s damaged red blood cells while simultaneously mixing the patient’s remaining plasma, platelets and white blood cells with red blood cells from a donor before returning them to the body.

But a new nationally representative survey of 100 US-based healthcare providers who actively manage at least one patient with sickle cell disease shows fewer than 3% of patients have been recorded receiving a red blood cell exchange even though 91% of surveyed providers report access to it.

The survey found that providers encountered barriers in administering the treatment, which most commonly included challenges coordinating between different medical departments, a limited supply of donated blood and a general lack of familiarity with the procedure. Only 5% of health providers surveyed had no barriers in delivering this type of treatment, the research found.