A prospective study of adverse effects and compliance of intravenous iron sucrose for the treatment of severe anemia in ante- and post-natal women

Abstract

Background: Anemia is a leading cause of maternal death in the world. About half of it occur in southeast Asia and among them, 80% occur in India. Nowadays, intravenous (IV) iron sucrose is started for the therapy of severe anemia. Objective: This study was done to evaluate the adverse effect and compliance of IV iron sucrose injections in ante- and post-natal women. Materials and Methods: Totally 406 patients having hem oglobin between 4 and 7 g/dL were included in the study. IV iron sucrose was started as per the national guidelines. At every follow-up visit, patients were examined and asked about adverse effects. The number of patients lost to follow-up was recorded, and the patients were contacted on phone about adverse effects. Recorded data were entered in MS Excel 2016. Chi-square test was used for analysis, and the results were published as percentage. Results: The most common adverse effect experienced by women was swelling at injection site (8.87%) followed by muscle/joint pain (2.7%) and pruritus (2.7%). Anaphylaxis was observed in