General Updates | A multinational EuroBloodNet survey evaluating the use of phlebotomy in sickle cell disease

Yes, so we did a multinational survey to investigate how many countries or, in specific, the caregivers use phlebotomy in daily practice. So we wanted to know what kind of target hemoglobin they wanted to reach and in which setting they use phlebotomy. And it’s quite often used, especially in hemoglobin C disease. We found that in the acute setting it is used, or if I’m more precise, when patients experience a complication and they have a high hemoglobin, then most of the caregivers would perform phlebotomies. But the target, so to which hemoglobin they want to go, is not really uniform – there are differences between caregivers and differences between countries. For the other genotypes, it’s also used, but because the hemoglobin is not that high in those genotypes most often, with hemoglobin S beta-thal it’s a little bit different, but for the hemoglobin SS and hemoglobin S beta 0, it’s used less often, and it’s really depending on the hospital or the caregiver that works in a certain hospital. But also during acute complications when hemoglobin is high, phlebotomy is used, but, like I said, there are more discrepancies between the different caregivers. 

So, the goal was to investigate and explore how it is used in Europe, because it’s not really defined in national guidelines yet. And there hasn’t been any good randomized prospective trial investigating phlebotomy in sickle cell disease. So, this is more like, or not really evidence-based, but it’s more expert opinion. So, that’s what we wanted to capture with this survey.

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