Iron therapy not beneficial to hip fracture patients

Iron supplementation therapy for the treatment of anaemia following hip fracture surgery has no clinical benefits, according to new research.

Published in the European Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, the paper, entitled Iron
Supplementation for Anaemia After Hip Fracture Surgery, showed that the difference between haemoglobin levels in patients who did and did not receive iron was negligible.

"There was no significant difference between the two groups with regard to the length of hospital stay or the mortality rate," the researchers said.

Adding: "Seventeen per cent of the patients who were allocated to iron therapy reported adverse effects of the medication.

They looked at three hundred patients with haemoglobin levels of less than 110g per litre following treatment for hip fracture.

Half were given a 28-day course of ferrous sulfate therapy and half were not.

In December of last year, Per Kjaersgaard-Andersen told Ortho Supersite that osteoporotic fractures are becoming increasingly burdensome on healthcare systems across Europe.

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