INTRAVENEOUS IRON TREATMENT IN ERYTHROPOIETIN RESISTANT ANEMIA

In patients with chronic renal failure, erythropoietin (EPO) resistance is a great problem in treatment of anemia. One of the main reason of EPO resistance is iron deficienty anemia. Iron deficiency treated with oral iron preparations is frequently not sufficient and leads to unsatisfactory results in EPO treatment . In this group of patients it's claimed that intravenous (IV) iron treatment has succesful results. Here, we search for iron deficiency anemia in Epo resistant patients and the effectiveness of I.V. iron treatment in iron deficient patients. Twenty patients, showing resistance to treatment for 3 months of EPO and oral iron preparations, with mean hematocrit value 22,8±3 %, mean trasferrin saturation value 23,3±4 % and mean serum ferritin value J89,5±53 ng/dl were included in this study. After ruling out the other reasons of EPO resistance, we administered 20 patients WOnig iron hydroxysucrose complex for 3 times a week for a period of 3 months. After the end of third month mean hematocrit value increased to 31,28±3,0 %, mean transferrin saturation increased to 34,7±0,8 %, and mean serum ferritin increased to 311,7±101 ng/dl (p<O,OJ). The stastistically significant increase in Htc values shows intravenous iron treatment in anemia of patients with CRF using EPO is successful and confidental way of increasing the success of EPO treatment.