Impact of Hydroxyurea Therapy in Reducing Pain Crises, Hospital Admissions, and Length of Stay Among Sickle Cell Patients in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia

Background In Saudi Arabia, sickle cell disease (SCD) is a major public health issue, especially in the eastern region. Sickle cell patients have major health-related issues, resulting in a poor quality of life and increased morbidity. Abnormal hemoglobin production in SCD causes various complications, such as vaso-occlusive crises, hemolytic episodes, and acute chest syndrome. These disease manifestations increase the need for hospital admission and long-term care. Most therapies for SCD are supportive and include episodic red blood cell transfusions, narcotics, antibiotics, and intravenous fluids. Hydroxyurea is a disease-modifying therapy. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of hydroxyurea therapy on reducing pain crises, hospital admissions, and length of stay for SCD patients and discern reasons that would prevent SCD patients from using hydroxyurea as a treatment option. Methodology We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study on SCD patients from the eastern Saudi Arabian province. The study included 202 SCD patients from hematology clinics and medical wards. We used a validated questionnaire tested for reliability after a pilot study of 15 randomly selected patients. We surveyed participants on demographic data, use of hydroxyurea, compliance with the regimen, hospitalization rates, durations, and complications. The study used IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) to analyze the data. All statistical analysis was done using two-tailed tests. P-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results The study included 202 participants who agreed to participate and completed the study questionnaire. The respondents comprised 150 SCD patients (74.3%) and 52 caregivers of SCD patients (25.7%). Patient ages ranged from one year to older than 36 years (mean age: 26.8 ± 12.3 years). The most common reason for not using hydroxyurea was that it was never offered to patients as a treatment option (40.9% of respondents), followed by respondents who had never heard of it (34.4%), think that they do not need it (24.7%), and fears of long-term consequences (23.7%). More hydroxyurea users (35.1%) suffered no acute painful crises during the last year than nonusers (32%), and more nonusers suffered more than four crises (20%) than hydroxyurea users (9.1%; p=.046). As for hospitalization due to SCD-related complications, 66.2% of hydroxyurea users were never hospitalized, while 51.2% of nonusers were never hospitalized. While 19.5% of hydroxyurea users were hospitalized one to two times, 28.8% of nonusers were hospitalized one to two times (p=.049). Conclusions The study revealed that hydroxyurea is effective in reducing painful vaso-occlusive crises and the number of hospital admissions. The prevalence of hydroxyurea use among SCD patients in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia remains low. Therefore, education campaigns and programs to increase awareness among health care providers regarding the benefits of hydroxyurea use are warranted in our region to help improve patient outcomes.