Thalassaemia

Profile

The Thalassemia Clinic operates as a day-care centre and as part of the Larnaca General Hospital. The clinic operates both in the mornings and afternoons, allowing patients to adjust their personal and professional lives around their treatment sessions.

Patients can visit the clinic without appointments. Both children and adults are monitored and have their sessions in the same clinic, avoiding the difficulties of transferring from paediatric to adult departments.

The Thalassemia Clinic provides care for patients with chronic hemoglobinopathies, including:

Beta-thalassemia

Alpha-thalassemia

Sickle cell syndromes

The clinic also monitors formerly thalassaemic patients who have undergone transplantation. Additionally, the clinic offers genetic counselling for high-risk couples who wish to have children.

The main pillars of thalassemia treatment are the regular blood transfusions and iron chelation therapy. The clinic also provides access to novel treatments such as Luspatercept. Luspatercept is administered to patients with beta-thalassemia who are on a regular transfusion regimen and helps in increasing their haemoglobin levels, reducing in this way both the frequency of blood transfusions and associated iron burden.

Furthermore, the clinic has access to all laboratory tests and imaging examinations, including the specialised MRI T2* sequences used in assessing hemosiderosis levels.

The Thalassemia Clinic collaborates closely with:

Blood Centres and Blood Banks

Population Screening Laboratory

Pharmaceutical Services

CING

Three other Thalassemia Clinics

“Karaiskakio Foundation” for finding compatible donors for children with beta-thalassemia

Transplant centres abroad

In addition, a psychologist provides psychological support which is crucial for the well-being and adherence of chronic patients to their indicated treatment, ensuring their better quality of life.

The medical and nursing staff of the clinic has extensive experience and knowledge, following international guidelines for patient monitoring. They rely on resources such as publications and guidelines issued from the Thalassaemia International Federation (TIF) and the United Kingdom. The efforts and activities of our thalassemia centres are continuous, in collaboration with the Cyprus Thalassaemia Association and TIF, to provide high-quality medical services to patients in accordance with international standards and a patient-centric approach.