Abstract:

Background: Sickle cell disease is an inheritable hemogrobinopathy where red cells assume an abnormal rigid, sickle shape leading to several complications one of them being renal failure. The disease is common among blacks. Despite its significant contribution in morbidity and mortality, very few studies have been done in Africa and especially in Tanzania to address the extent of renal failure in SCD patients.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of renal failure among SCD patients attending BMC.

Methodology: A descriptive retrospective hospital based cross sectional study will be done, where all patients below the age of 15 years attending sickle cell clinic at BMC from January to December 2016 were included in the study. A total of 238 patients were obtained by random sampling and their registration number, demographic characteristics and laboratory results were recorded. Clean data obtained and finally analyzed using SPSS version 20.

Results: Study revealed that 80% of patients had established renal failure (eGFR<60mL/min1.73m2). Majority of them (78.8%) were children under the age of 2 years, however was no gender predilection.

Conclusion: The study helped to clear the controversy that renal failure is a disease of advanced age in sickle cell disease patients. Also proteinuria and hematuria showed strong association with increased severity of renal failure whereas anemia didn’t have any strong association with renal failure.