Early intravenous iron administration in the Emergency Department reduces red blood cell unit transfusion, hospitalisation, re-transfusion, length of stay and costs.

BACKGROUND: Moderate to severe iron deficiency anaemia is a common finding in patients admitted to the Emergency Department (ED). According to Patient Blood Management principles, intravenous iron should be the therapy of choice instead of blood transfusion for selected cases affected by chronic iron deficiency anaemia. However, this option is only rarely taken into account by physicians in the ED. As a result, in many circumstances, treatment of iron deficiency anaemia in the ED can differ from that of the Anaemia Clinic. With the aim of reducing inappropriate transfusions, and to implement intravenous iron usage, we shared a specific protocol with the ED. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of all subjects admitted to the ED (n=267, Post-protocol group) with hemoglobin