New York—Patients with sickle cell disease who present for abdominal surgery experience vastly increased odds for blood transfusion, major and minor postoperative complications, longer hospital stay and total hospital charges, a New York–based research team found.
According to John Brumm, MD, a resident at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, sickle cell disease has been estimated to cost the U.S. health care system about $1.6 billion each