The comparison of the efficiency of tramadol and meperidine in the sickle cell disease patients who admitted to emergency department with painful crisis

ABSTRACTThe Comparison of the Efficiency of Tramadol and Meperidine in the Sickle CellDisease Patients Who Admitted to Emergency Department With Painful CrisisSickle cell disease is an inherited disorder of the red blood cells which is seenfrequently in the South Anatolia. Vaso-occlusive painful crisis are the most seen complicationand is the common reason of admission of the patients to the Emergency Department (ED).The effective and appropriate medical treatment of these painful crisis lead to less of durationtime and less number of the patients in the ED. Different analgesic drugs are used in thetreatment of the acute painful crisis. The aim of our study was to compare the efficiency oftramadol with meperidine in the patients who admitted to ED with painful crisis after wedetermined the severity of the pain.This prospective, randomised and double-blinded clinical study was performed inEmergency Department of Cukurova University, School of Medicine, between the April 2005and November 2006 after the getting permission from the medical faculty?s ethical commitee.After despite severity of the pain, total 68 patients with sickle cell disease were included inthis study. There were 49 (72.1 %) males and 19 (27.9 %) females with mean age of 24.9±6.1.There were 34 (50 %) patients in tramadol group and 34 (50 %) patients in meperidinegroup.These two groups compare with analgesic efficiencies, side efects and hemodynamicparameters were evaluated some period. We used ?SPSS 11.5 for Windows? for statisticalanalysis.In conclusion, same side effects and no depression effect on the respiratuar system intwo groups lead us to consider these drugs to use in acute painful crisis. Meperidine had moreeffecieny to relief of pain, compared with tramadol. Patients in tramadol group needadditional dose of drug was higher than the other group. However, meperidine had low bloodpressure and sedation effects compared with tramadol. Meperidine can considered in thepatients who have not low blood pressure and tramadol can be alternative drug to meperidinein the patients with low blood pressure.Keywords: Sickle Cell Anemia, Painful Crisis, Tramadol, MeperidineVIII