Abstract

Dona Saju*, Melody Rose Vijay, Athira Thomson, Arya Suresh, Sneha Saira Jiji, K. Menaka

ABSTRACT

Iron deficiency continues to be the leading single-nutrient deficiency in the world, affecting the lives of more than 2 billion people despite considerable efforts to decrease its prevalence. In cases of severe iron deficiency anemia, oral iron therapy, although found to be a very effective way of supplementing iron, has its limitations – it does not stimulate erythropoiesis quickly and reliably enough, is required to be continued for a longer duration of time, and has many side effects. Parentral iron, on the other hand, has been shown to be the only effective therapy to supply enough iron for erythropoiesis in cases of severe anemia, thereby reducing the need for blood transfusion. Intravenous iron dextran, iron gluconate, and iron sucrose have been considered for the correction of severe conditions. Up to 30% of patients who are given iron dextran suffers from adverse effects like arthritis, fever, urticarial and anaphylaxis. On the other hand iron sucrose seems to be safe with low incidence of fever and other milder self-limitting side effects. Because of the life threatening side effects of iron dextran and iron gluconate, they are used hesitantly and judiciously with caution, whereas the confidence on using iron sucrose in the clinical practise is growing at much faster rate. Thus here we highlight a case of iron sucrose induced anaphylactic reaction (breathlessness and numbness all over the body) in a patient with menorrhagia induced iron deficiency anemia.