Preoperative treatment of anemic women with epoetin beta.

AIM

To compare the effects of preoperative treatment with recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) and iron with iron only on hemoglobin levels (Hb) in anemic women prior to hysterectomy.

METHODS

The study was an open-labelled randomized parallel study. Fifteen women scheduled for hysterectomy due to uterine myoma were given oral iron and EPO (NeoRecormon) 4 weeks prior to surgery (group I) and 16 women were given oral iron only (group II).

RESULTS

Group I showed a significantly greater increase in mean Hb during the pre-surgery study period compared with group II (p=0.007). Two weeks postoperatively, however, there was no significant difference in mean Hb between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

We found that a significantly greater increase in Hb was achieved with iron in combination with EPO, although in most cases iron only seemed to be as efficacious as iron+EPO in correcting anemia in myoma patients pre-operatively.