Facial swelling in a sickle cell patient

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is characterized as a chronic hemolytic anemia with vaso-occlusive crises that result in multisystem organ damage. Bone marrow is one of the more common sites of these crises, presumably due to marrow hypercellularity that impairs blood flow- leading to regional hypoxia and subsequent infarction. Infarcts of facial bones are considered an uncommon complication of SCD. When infarcts occur in facial bones, the mandible and orbital bones are the most commonly affected. Overall, the clinical presentation of facial bone infarctions may mimic an infectious process, such as cellulitis, an abscess, or, more commonly, osteomyelitis. The purpose of this paper was to present the case of a patient with a confluence of symptoms in the face as a result of her sickle cell disease.