RESUMO
Background: Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia, around the world, with postpartum hemorrhage one of the reasons. Different treatment options are available for correction of iron deficiency, ferric carboxymaltose being the most recent
Objective: To determine the effectiveness of ferric carboxymaltose in the management of iron deficiency anemia in the postpartum period
Methodology: An experimental study was conducted at Sheikh Zayed Medical College/Hospital Rahim Yar Khan. 30 female patients, with documented iron deficiency anemia within 10 days of post partum period and with no history of renal or hepatic disease, infection, anemia due to any other causes, severe anemia requiring blood transfusion and no parenteral iron therapy in last 20 days, were included in the study. All the patient were given ferric carboxymaltose 15mg/kg body weight [max 1000mg] intravenous infusion. Pre and post therapy complete blood picture including hemoglobin and serum ferritin levels were compared after 1 week. The data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version15
Results: Significant increase in both hemoglobin and serum ferritin levels was noted in patients with mean rise being 2.4g/dl and 338.3 ng/ml in hemoglobin and serum ferritin levels, respectively. Mild rash and fever were the only adverse events noted, in only one patient, each
Conclusion: Ferric carboxymaltose appears to be a very effective drug for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia both in terms of rise in hematological indices and low adverse event profile