Randomised Trial Comparing Iron Supplementation Versus Placebo in the Treatment of Anaemia After Hip Fracture

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2009-08-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

At present our current practice is to provide a course of oral iron therapy for those patients with a post-operative haemoglobin which is below normal, but not severe enough to require a blood transfusion. Such a practice is not without side effects from the iron tablets, namely ingestion, nausea, diarrhoea, constipation. There is little evidence in the literature to support the current practice of using iron, with only one small randomised trial suggesting such therapy is unnecessary. We propose to recruit 300 patients recovering from a hip fracture with a post-operative haemoglobin below 11g/l. For those patients willing to enter the study, half will be given oral iron therapy (ferrous sulphate 200mg twice daily) for one month. The haemoglobin will be checked when the patients attends the hip fracture clinic at 6 weeks after discharge.

• Phase: Phase 3
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Collaborator: Peterborough Hospitals Hip Fracture Project
• Treatments: Iron

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients with anaemia after surgery for a hip fracture

Exclusion Criteria:

• absence of anaemia, inability to provide consent