[Pulmonary complications of drepanocytemia: recent advances (author's transl)]

Pulmonary complications are non very frequent in drepanocytemia (3 to 7 p. 100) but they are often severe and sometimes dramatic. They happen in the homozygotic forms or in the double heterozygotic ones (SC and Sbeta Tahal). Infections, most often due to pneumococcus, are specially frequent in children, though infractions are generally observed in youth and grown-ups. All these patients suffer of an impairement of their respiratory function and of their immunological capacity.