RESULTS
Nineteen patients (12 oncology, 7 sickle cell) with a median age of 14.6 years received LDKI for a median of 6 days at a median initial dose of 0.06 mg/kg/h (1.1 mcg/kg/min) (Table 2). Patients with SCD were all admitted for a VOE and only 2 of the 7 were on opioids (for 1 and 3 days) prior to initiation of LDKI. The other 5 patients were initiated on LDKI on the day of admission with opioids. For patients with both sickle cell disease and cancer, there was no significant change in pain scores, heart rate or opioid utilization when comparing the day prior to LDKI initiation (for oncology patients), the day of LDKI initiation, and the two subsequent days after LDKI initiation (Table 3). No patient developed hypertension or discontinued the LDKI due to intolerability. Four patients had a single side effect each including two with dream-like feeling (dysphoria) and one each with blurry vision and drowsiness, one of which required LDKI dose reduction and none of which were treated with benzodiazepines. For patients with SCD, comparing the LDKI admission with prior admissions did not show a significant difference in pain scores, opioid utilization or hospital length of stay though there was a median 32% reduction in pain scores when comparing the entire admission with LDKI to the prior admissions (Table 4).