Intravenous ferric carboxymaltose versus iron sucrose in iron deficiency anemia of pregnancy

Abstract

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. Anemia, defined by the World Health Organization as hemoglobin < 11 g/dl, is frequently seen in the antenatal period and affects 4-48% of women who give birth and severe anemia, with hemoglobin levels <9 g/dl .This study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravenous Ferric Carboxymaltose. (FCM) in comparison with intravenous Iron sucrose complex (ISC) for treatment of iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy.: A comparative, interventional, prospective study was carried out in 100 antenatal patients with Anemia (hemoglobin level between 5 to 9.5 gm/dl) in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Government Medical College, Baroda, Gujarat, India from September 2017 to August 2018. The subjects were randomized in two groups. First group receiving 1000 mg of intravenous iron sucrose divided in five doses on alternate days (200 mg each) and Second group receiving 1000 mg of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose.: Maximum number of patients in our study were belonged to low socioeconomic group, significantly higher number of women achieved rise of hemoglobin >2gm/dl in FCM group, which was highly significant (p value <0.001). Mean rise of hemoglobin was 1.9 g/dl for FCM group and 1.66gm/dl for iron sucrose group, which was also significant. Serum ferritin level in ferric carboxymaltose group was rises more as compared to iron sucrose group. Unpaired‘t’ test was used to test the significance of rise and compare the rise between two groups.Ferric carboxymaltose is an efficient and better alternative to Iron Sucrose in treating iron deficiency anemia of pregnancy. It has an added advantage of single dose regime with lower side effects.