[Problems of adult sickle cell patients]

During the past decades sickle cell disease and the thalassemias have come to Northern Europe with migrants from the Mediterranean area and Sub-saharan Africa. There are relatively few sickle cell patients in Germany, Switzerland and Austria compared to our neighbors who had colonies in Africa and most physicians do not treat more than 1-2 patients. Due to progress in prophylaxis and therapy, 85 - 90% of children with sickle cell disease in the USA and Europe reach adult age. With increasing age patients suffer chronic organ damage in addition to episodes of acute organ failure which predominate in childhood. Taking care of sickle cell patients is a challenge and requires a large amount of knowledge and experience. In order to give optimal treatment to our patients we need to make use of the experience and study results of colleagues abroad. In this paper the most important clinical manifestations of the disease are discussed and available information sites are presented.