intravenous iron sucrose versus oral ferrous fumarate for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in pregnant women

Background & objective: the aim of the current study was comparison of the effectiveness of intravenous iron sucrose versus oral ferrous fumarate for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy. materials & methods: this is a prospective randomized clinical trial enrolling 100 pregnant women with iron deficiency anemia who visited the al-diwaniya educational hospital for maternity and children from october 2022 to july 2023 whose ferritin level was less than 15 ng/ml and hb level was between 70-10.9g/l. they were treated with either intravenous iron sucrose or oral ferrous fumarate for four weeks. formerly, patients were allocated into two groups. the patients in the group i received ferrous fumarate pills, each enclosed with elemental iron 100 mg. group ii got 100 ml of 0.9% nacl containing a dose of iron sucrose dissolved in it and calculated by a specific equation. after four weeks, serum ferritin and hemoglobin levels were assessed, and the adverse effects were also monitored. results: comparing hemoglobin levels produces a substantial pre- and post-treatment difference (p=0.001). serum ferritin level harvest significant differences pre- and post-treatment (p=0.001). the post-treatment comparison of the two groups showed a significant difference in each group (p= 0.001). conclusion: maternal iron reserves are more effectively increased by intravenous ferrous sucrose than by oral ferrous fumarate.