VIDEO: IV iron therapy ‘rapidly’ restores iron in IBD patients with active inflammation
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In this Healio Gastroenterology video exclusive, Stephen B. Hanauer, MD, FACG, discussed intravenous iron products being used in the treatment iron deficiency anemia in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Hanauer, medical director of the Digestive Health Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, presented the research at the Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Annual Meeting.
He said iron deficiency anemia is common in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease because these patients tend to have bleeding and blood loss through the intestine.
Hanauer noted there are various ways to replace iron in patients, including both oral and IV iron formulations. Oral therapy is the standard in patients with moderate iron deficiency, whereas in patients with active inflammation, delayed release iron formulations are not as effective.
“In these situations where there is active inflammation, intravenous iron formulations have been very successful at rapidly repleting iron stores and leading to the improvement in anemia even in patients who have active inflammation where oral iron absorption would be reduced,” Hanauer said. “In addition, many of our patients who already have [gastrointestinal] symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea or constipation, oral iron therapy may actually worsen those symptoms and may not be tolerated by our patients.”
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Hanauer SB. The IBD Management Paradigm Renewed: Established Data, Evolving Science, and Next-generation IV Iron Products. Presented at: Advances in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Dec. 9-11, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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