Sickle cell anemia is an autosomal recessive disorder where abnormal hemoglobin causes red blood cells to become rigid and crescent-shaped, especially when deoxygenated. These misshapen cells clog blood vessels, reducing oxygen to tissues and causing stroke, organ damage, and hemolysis. Sickled cells die in 10-20 days instead of the normal 90-100 days, leading to chronic anemia.
In this video, we're covering the pathophysiology of sickle cell anemia. This is a major topic that nursing schools and the NCLEX love to test you on. So we'll walk through the patho of sickle cell disease so you can finally understand it and be able to critically think about it for your exams. Let's dive in. So sickle cell anemia, or sickle cell disease is what it's also called. It happens when the hemoglobin part of the red blood cell is misshapen. There are millions of hemoglobin molecules inside each red. And during this sickle cell disease, some of these hemoglobin molecules are abnormal and misshapen, which causes the red blood cells to form a sickle shape. They clump together and they lose their elasticity. So there ends up being clumps of sickle cells floating around the body. And this leads to many complications which we're going to talk about in a minute. So let's dive into the step by step pathophysiology of what's going on. You know, I always love to put things into simple step by step processes for you. I just think it is a really easy way to learn things in nursing school. So that's. And of course this is exactly how we teach our pathophysiology videos inside the nurse, like SOS Membership community. So let's walk through the patho and put it into simple steps for you. The first step is that the trait for sickle cell disease is inherited. This is an autosomal recessive condition where the person with the disease would need to inherit one abnormal gene from their mother and one abnormal gene from their father. If they only receive one gene from either the mother or the father, then they would be what we call a carrier for sickle cell anemia. They wouldn't have many symptoms themselves, but they could pass it on to their children. So sickle cell anemia is inherited. It's a genetic condition. Now step number two happens as those red blood cells are oxygenated and deoxygenated. Now, normally red blood cells go into the lungs and oxygen binds to hemoglobin molecules on those red blood cells. Then the red blood cells, they travel around and give that oxygen to the tissues throughout the body, then lungs to be re oxygenated. But during sickle cell anemia, when the hemoglobin on that red blood cell gives up their oxygen, they start to misshape. It's almost like the oxygen molecules help the hemoglobin keep its shape because without it, the hemoglobin becomes misshapen or sickled. If the cell is able to get oxygen again, it can unsickle itself. But the more and more that it sickles over time, the more damaged it becomes and it won't be able to go back, back to its normal shape. When the hemoglobin are deformed like this, they start to clump together inside the red blood cells and then form long strands of abnormal hemoglobin. This is what causes the red blood cell to form a sickle or a crescent shape. Now, when this happens and the red blood cells form a sickle shape, they aren't able to carry oxygen as well as those healthy red blood cells would. So they can't take as much oxygen to the tissues. And they also start to clump together. And small blood vessels, which can reduce blood flow to those tissues, can lead to things like stroke or blocked blood vessels in the lungs and the kidneys. Now, as the red blood cells become sickled, they become weaker and weaker and weaker and they get destroyed a lot faster than normal red blood cells. Normally, red blood cells can last between 90 to 100 days in the body. It's a pretty long time. But cells that are sickled only last about 10 to 12, 20 days. It's very, very decreased, so they have a much shorter lifespan. There are many complications of this quick destruction of red blood cells, like anemia and the bones needing to work on overdrive more and more and more to produce more red blood cells. Now we talk more about the complications of sickle cell anemia in our signs and symptoms video inside the nursing SOS membership community. So if you need to know more about the signs and symptoms, the nursing Assessment for Sickle Cel Nursing Interventions for Sickle Cell Disease definitely join the community. The link is down below in the description. Now, there is a lot of study strategies floating around out there about how to pass nursing school and learn all of the disorders you have to learn. But I am telling you right now, so many of them do not work. And a lot of them are, to be honest, just rumors. So click on this video right here and I'll walk you through better study strategies that will help you raise your grades and pass your exams and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I will catch you in that next video. Take care. Bye bye.
