ABSTRACT
Sickle Cell Disease [SCD] in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia is thought to be a benign form of disease. This is not true for all patients and it contradicts our clinical observation. Therefore, we conducted this study to look at the patterns of different presentations of SCD patients who required admission to Qateef Central Hospital [QCH]. The study was conducted prospectively between March 1990 and July 1991. All SCD patients less than 13 years were included. The total number of patients admitted to the paediatric medical ward during the study period was 2886, out of which 561 were SCD patients [19.4%]. Out of these, painful crises were responsible for 298 admissions [53%], anaemic episodes for 204 admissions [36.4%], infection for 83 admissions [15%], acute chest syndrome for 28 admissions [5%] and others for 20 admissions [3.6%]. The SCD patients form a large proportion of paediatric admissions. They present with various complications of the disease