Oral and Parenteral Iron Therapy

Abstract

UNCOMPLICATED iron-deficiency anemia can be satisfactorily treated with iron salts for oral administration. Generally accepted indications for the parenteral therapy of iron deficiency are intolerance of the orally administered salts, gastrointestinal disease, need to create iron stores to protect against future bleeding, and poor absorption of oral iron.¹ The recommendation that parenterally administered iron be given as an alternative to blood transfusions in iron deficiency implies a more rapid response to parenteral therapy.² Although this concept has been challenged,³ it seems that many physicians a priori expect iron by injection to correct iron-deficiency anemia faster than iron administered by mouth. Early in the study of a new iron sorbitol—citric acid complex for intramuscular injection it appeared that increases in hematocrit value were taking place with remarkable speed.⁴ Accordingly the present study was designed to compare in the severely iron-deficient patient the hematologic response to orally administered