A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Intravenous Iron Sucrose Versus Ferric Carboxymaltose in the Treatment of Iron Deficiency Anemia in Pregnancy

Background & Objective: Anemia is major public health problem throughout the world and the commonest cause behind it is iron deficiency. Oral iron intake is the treatment of choice, but parenteral administration of iron is necessary under certain circumstances like intolerance to oral iron or pregnancy near term. The objective of present study is to compare the efficacy and safety of parenteral Iron Sucrose to Ferric Carboxymaltose in improving the hematological indices in anemic pregnant women. Materials & Methods: The study was a comparative, observational study conducted at Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, Dehradun from September 2018 to May 2020. Sample size was 120 pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia in each group. One group was treated with intravenous Iron Sucrose and other group was treated with intravenous Ferric Carboxymaltose after calculation of total iron dose. Hematological tests were repeated at day 14th and 28th of the treatment. Outcome was measured by improvement in hematological parameters and experienced side effects. Data was analyzed by using appropriate statistical tests. Results: According to our study, both groups were comparable in term of sociodemographic features and baseline hematological parameters. Hemoglobin rise was more and rapid in group treated with ferric carboxymaltose (8.7 ± 0.47 g/dl to 11.6 ± 0.77 g/dl) than the iron sucrose (8.24 ± 0.57 g/dl to 10.60 ± 0.87g/dl) group. Rise in serum ferritin and MCV of RBC were also more in ferric carboxymaltose group than the iron sucrose group. Both groups have only minimal and mild side effects, but side effects were more in iron sucrose group than iron carboxymaltose group. Conclusion: Hence we can conclude by our study that parenteral therapy with iron sucrose and carboxymaltose, both are able to successfully treat iron deficiency anemia in pregnancy but the improvement is faster, safer and more convenient with the use of ferric carboxymaltose than iron sucrose.