Clinical trial of a hemoglobin based blood substitute in patients with sickle cell anemia

A hemoglobin based "blood substitute" developed at Texas Tech University and produced in Italy was used in nine children with sickle cell anemia admitted to the Centre de l'Anemie S. S. of Kinshasa, Zaire. Five of the children presented an "aplastic crisis," for example, a sudden decrease in hemoglobin concentration associated with absence of reticulocytes in the peripheral blood, and four were admitted with unremitting severe pain because of a "vaso-occlusive crisis." The blood substitute contained 10 per cent hemoglobin and was infused in a volume corresponding to 25 per cent of blood volume (calculated for each child as equal to 7 per cent of body weight in kilograms). No adverse reaction was noted. To the contrary, all patients presented beneficial effects. In the patients with aplastic crisis, the hemoglobin solution stimulated the bone marrow to a significant erythropoietic effect, whereby the number of reticulocytes in the peripheral blood increased from zero to 47 +/- 7 per cent. In the patients with vaso-occlusive crises, pain was quickly relieved.