Iron Supplementation in Upper Non-variceal Gastrointestinal Bleeding

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Trial end date: 2026-02-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Anemia is a frequent complication of gastrointestinal bleeding, affecting 61% of the patients. Currently, anemia caused by gastrointestinal bleeding can be treated with iron supplementation. However, the dose and route of the administration are still a question. The FIERCE clinical trial aims to compare the effect of intravenous iron supplementation and oral iron replacement on mortality, unplanned emergency visits, and hospital readmissions in multimorbid patients with acute nonvariceal gastrointestinal bleeding.

• Phase: Phase 4
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: University of Pecs
• Treatments: Iron

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. age ≥ 65 years;

2. endoscopically proven acute nonvariceal GIB source;

3. 48 hours after the endoscopic diagnosis and/or treatment;

4. hemodynamically stable;

5. the discharge of the patient is planned;

6. hemoglobin level <10 g/dl on the day of randomisation;

7. 24 hours after the last transfusion and no need for further transfusion;

8. signed informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. known hypersensitivity to iron products (mild side effects excluded);

2. previous diagnosis of iron overload [e.g., transferrin receptor saturation (TSAT) >50%, ferritin> 160 for women ng/ml, ferritin >270 ng/ml for men) or disorders of iron utilisation;

3. pregnancy or breast feeding;

4. diagnosis of iron malabsorption (at discretion of the attending clinician; e.g., severe inflammatory bowel disease, active celiac disease);

5. chronic end stage diseases (chronic heart failure-New York Heart Association Classification class 4, liver cirrhosis with Child Pugh C score, chronic kidney disease with dialysis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease stage 4, chronic inflammatory disease, malignancies, AIDS);

6. active malignancies;

7. liver cirrhosis with known varices at high risk of bleeding - endoscopic features of high risk of variceal bleeding or liver stiffness measured by transient elastography >20 kiloPascal and platelet count <150 × 10^9 cells/L;

8. gastrointestinal tract malignancies with high risk of gastrointestinal bleeding;

9. high risk of poor compliance or no fixed abode;

10. myelo- or lymphoproliferative diseases;

11. anemia not attributable to iron deficiency (sideroblastic anaemia, aplastic anaemia, haemolytic anaemia, thalassaemia, B12 vitamin or folic acid deficiency or combination of these with IDA);

12. primary coagulation disorders (e.g. Glanzmann thrombasthenia, Von Willebrand disease, Haemophylia A, Haemophylia B);

13. the patient will be transferred to another institute after discharge (e.g. hospital, senior care center).