Randomised Trial Comparing Iron Supplementation Versus Placebo in the Treatment of Anaemia After Hip Fracture

Summary

At present our current practice is to provide a course of oral iron therapy for those patients with a post-operative haemoglobin which is below normal, but not severe enough to require a blood transfusion. Such a practice is not without side effects from the iron tablets, namely ingestion, nausea, diarrhoea, constipation. There is little evidence in the literature to support the current practice of using iron, with only one small randomised trial suggesting such therapy is unnecessary. We propose to recruit 300 patients recovering from a hip fracture with a post-operative haemoglobin below 11g/l. For those patients willing to enter the study, half will be given oral iron therapy (ferrous sulphate 200mg twice daily) for one month. The haemoglobin will be checked when the patients attends the hip fracture clinic at 6 weeks after discharge.

Timeline

Start

2004-07

Primary completion

2009-07

Completion

2009-08

Publications

• Background Parker MJ. Iron supplementation for anemia after hip fracture surgery: a randomized trial of 300 patients. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2010 Feb;92(2):265-9. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.I.00883.

Drugs

Indications

No indication recorded.