Parenteral Iron Sucrose Therapy for Moderate and Severe Iron-Deficiency Anemia in Pregnancy

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:In this study, we aimed to analyze the effectiveness of parenteral iron sucrose use in our pregnant patient population. STUDY DESIGN:The medical records of all anemic pregnant patients hospitalized at our tertiary hospital for parenteral iron sucrose therapy were reviewed retrospectively between January 2014 and April 2015. Paired samples t-test was used for comparing means of continuous variables. RESULTS:The results of 117 pregnant women (1.3% of anemic patients) were available for the analysis. Four (3.4%) patients had severe and 113 (96.6%) patients had moderate anemia. The median gestational age for iron sucrose administration was 31.1 weeks (26.8-34.3). The mean hemoglobin, hematocrit and ferritin levels before and after delivery were 10.8±1.3 gr/l; 9.9±1.3 gr/l, 33.5±4.0; 30.8±4.0 and 89.6±0.7 μg/L; 98.1±0.9 μg/L, respectively. All but two (1.8%) patients had elevated hemoglobin levels after iron sucrose therapy. When hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were compared between before iron sucrose therapy and before delivery, there was a 2.8 g/l and 7.8% increase in the mean hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, respectively and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.000 and p=0.000, respectively). No severe or life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction was reported. CONCLUSION:In this study, we found out that intravenous iron sucrose therapy for iron deficiency anemia is feasible, effective and has a good safety profile.