Abstract

Background: Anemia is a leading cause of maternal death in the world. About half of it occur in southeast Asia and among them, 80% occur in India. Nowadays, intravenous (IV) iron sucrose is started for the therapy of severe anemia.
Objective: This study was done to evaluate the adverse effect and compliance of IV iron sucrose injections in ante- and post-natal women.
Materials and Methods: Totally 406 patients having hemoglobin between 4 and 7 g/dL were included in the study. IV iron sucrose was started as per the national guidelines. At every follow-up visit, patients were examined and asked about adverse effects. The number of patients lost to follow-up was recorded, and the patients were contacted on phone about adverse effects. Recorded data were entered in MS Excel 2016. Chi-square test was used for analysis, and the results were published as percentage.
Results: The most common adverse effect experienced by women was swelling at injection site (8.87%) followed by muscle/joint pain (2.7%) and pruritus (2.7%). Anaphylaxis was observed in <0.5% of the patients. Multiparous women and postnatal women were less compliant to treatment. Conclusion: IV iron sucrose is very safe, and the adverse effects are minimal. Compliance is less in multipara and postnatal women as compared to primipara women. Hence, proper counseling is needed mainly for multipara and postnatal women to improve their compliance to treatment.