Inhaling nitric oxide alleviates pain in sickle-cell patients

New research has reported that inhaling nitric oxide can safely and effectively reduce pain in adults with sickle-cell anaemia, a genetic blood disorder characterised by red blood cells turning into sickle-shaped cells.

A study of 18 patients in Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit showed that nine patients inhaling nitric oxide for four hours had better pain control than those receiving only the standard self-administered morphine.

"This study showed that you can breathe the gas and have less pain, which is the major reason for which sickle-cell patients are admitted to hospital," said C Alvin, corresponding author of the study.

A larger study will help to define the optimal dose as well as duration for the treatment. If findings continue to hold, Alvin envisions sickle-cell patients, much like asthmatics, having nitric oxide inhalers handy to forestall a full-blown pain crisis.

While it's not certain how nitric oxide helps, the researchers suspected that one of nitric oxide's usual duties in the body is to help prevent clot formation.

"If you have pain relief without more narcotics then we must be attacking the problem," Alvin noted.

The study participants receiving nitric oxide used slightly less morphine than the control group and continued to experience pain relief for two hours after the therapy ended. No patients showed signs of nitric oxide toxicity.

The author also believed that morphine would eventually be replaced by a mix of other drugs such as nitric oxide, that addresses the pain's root cause.

The study was published in the American Journal of Hematology.