Journal of Perioperative Medicine
Open Access

Supplements Required and Injected Through IV for Iron Infusion

Napoleon Stephan^{* *}Correspondence: Napoleon Stephan, Department of Medicine, University of Barcelona, Spain, Email:

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Introduction

Iron Infusion is a process in which iron is infused into the veins of your body through a needle. This type of injecting medication or supplements is also called as Intravenous Infusion. When it comes to Iron Infusion, these are suggested by doctors in order to treat Iron deficiency. These are quite different from those of Iron Injections. Iron injection delivers the whole dose at a time whereas Iron Infusion takes around 3-4hours and many such sittings. Iron deficiency is mostly treated through dietary food and supplements taken in the form of tablets. Only to some people doctors recommend Iron Infusion. You may require iron diffusion if you cannot take the oral supplements, if there is blood loss, if iron is not properly absorbed by your gut and to avoid any medical complications.

The preparation before the iron infusion is pretty normal. You can eat your breakfast or lunch, have your medications as suggested. It’s suggested to wear loose clothes and drink plenty of water before the infusion.

An iron infusion is done by a nurse or a doctor. They use a needle to insert a small tube into a vein at your arm or hand. This tube is attached to the IV bag of the iron. The iron will be diluted with a saline solution. During the process you might feel a little pain as the needle is injected. Before the actual dose is inserted, the nurse gives you a test dose to know if there are any reactions on your body. If there are no adverse reactions then they will continue with the procedure of injecting iron into the body through the vein else they will drop the procedure. Once the process is started it takes up to 4hours to complete the process. You will have to sit for this long time while the process is going on. This is a slow infusion process in order to reduce any complications. Once the procedure is completed, you can directly get back to your daily chores. Not just one iron infusion is sufficient to recover from the deficiency of iron. It takes more than a few doses to recover from the iron deficiency. It is also expensive compared to any other anemia treatments.

You might have mild side effects after this process. They are headaches, vomits, body pains, shortness of breath, change in taste, swelling at the place of injection, variations in the blood pressure etc. The most serious side effect of iron deficiency is iron toxicity. This is the side effect of IV in long term. Iron toxicity leads to too much of iron in the body’s tissues. Iron toxicity is a very rare side effect seen in a few people. The doctors take all the precautions to know if there could be any side effects of Iron Infusion into your body. They observe your body reactions by infusing a very little quantity of it. Then they will check if there are any side effects like loss of consciousness, shock or hypotension.