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Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Iron therapy for pre‐operative anaemia

Overview of attention for article published in Cochrane database of systematic reviews, December 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (83rd percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

Mentioned by

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1 policy source
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9 X users
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1 Facebook page

Citations

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52 Dimensions

Readers on

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166 Mendeley
Title
Iron therapy for pre‐operative anaemia
Published in
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, December 2015
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd011588.pub2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Oliver Ng, Barrie D Keeler, Amitabh Mishra, Alastair Simpson, Keith Neal, Matthew J Brookes, Austin G Acheson

Abstract

Pre-operative anaemia is common and occurs in up to 76% of patients. It is associated with increased peri-operative allogeneic blood transfusions, longer hospital lengths of stay and increased morbidity and mortality. Iron deficiency is one of the most common causes of this anaemia. Oral iron therapy has traditionally been used to treat anaemia but newer, safer parenteral iron preparations have been shown to be more effective in other conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, chronic heart failure and post-partum haemorrhage. A limited number of studies look at iron therapy for the treatment of pre-operative anaemia. The aim of this Cochrane review is to summarise the evidence for use of iron supplementation, both enteral and parenteral, for the management of pre-operative anaemia. The objective of this review is to evaluate the effects of pre-operative iron therapy (enteral or parenteral) in reducing the need for allogeneic blood transfusions in anaemic patients undergoing surgery. We ran the search on 25 March 2015. We searched the Cochrane Injuries Group's Specialised Register, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, The Cochrane Library), Ovid MEDLINE(R), Ovid MEDLINE(R) In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE(R) Daily and Ovid OLDMEDLINE(R), EMBASE Classic and EMBASE (Ovid), CINAHL Plus (EBSCO), PubMed, clinical trials registries, conference abstracts, and we screened reference lists. We included all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which compared pre-operative iron monotherapy to placebo, no treatment, standard of care or another form of iron therapy for anaemic adults undergoing surgery. Anaemia was defined by haemoglobin values less than 13 g/dL for males and 12 g/dL for non-pregnant females. Data were collected by two authors on the proportion of patients who receive a blood transfusion, amount of blood transfused per patient (units) and haemoglobin measured as continuous variables at pre-determined time-points: pre-treatment, pre-operatively but post-treatment, and post-operatively. Statistical analysis was performed using the Cochrane statistical software, Review Manager 2014. Outcome data were summarised in tables and a forest plot. Three prospective randomised controlled studies evaluated pre-operative iron therapy to correct anaemia (two in colorectal and one in gynaecological surgery) and included 114 patients in total. One compared oral iron versus standard care (Lidder 2007); one intravenous iron versus control (Edwards 2009); and one study compared oral versus intravenous iron (Kim 2009). Both colorectal trials reported the primary outcome (proportion of patients who received allogeneic blood transfusions) and meta-analysis showed a reduction in blood transfusions with the administration of iron therapy, but the reduction was not statistically significant (risk ratio (RR) 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.27 to 1.18). All studies reported haemoglobin change but data for the anaemic patients were only available for two studies (Edwards 2009 and Kim 2009). Edwards 2009 showed no difference in haemoglobin at the end of treatment pre-operatively. The intravenous versus oral iron study showed an increase in haemoglobin with intravenous iron at the end of treatment pre-operatively (MD 1.90 g/dL, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.64; participants = 56), but the results are at high risk of bias because participants with less than 80% compliance with therapy were excluded from the analysis and compliance was lower in the oral iron group due to the side-effects of treatment (Kim 2009).None of the studies reported quality of life, short- or long-term mortality or post-operative morbidity. The use of iron therapy for pre-operative anaemia does not show a statistically significant reduction in the proportion of patients who received an allogeneic blood transfusion compared to no iron therapy. However, the 38 patients in our analysis falls far short of the 819 patients our information size calculation recommended to detect a 30% reduction in blood transfusions. Intravenous iron may be more effective than oral iron at increasing haemoglobin. However, all these conclusions are drawn from only three small randomised controlled studies. Further well designed, adequately powered randomised controlled studies are required to determine the true effectiveness of iron therapy for pre-operative anaemia.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 166 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Germany 1 <1%
Chile 1 <1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Denmark 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 161 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 27 16%
Researcher 20 12%
Other 16 10%
Student > Bachelor 16 10%
Student > Postgraduate 14 8%
Other 44 27%
Unknown 29 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 86 52%
Nursing and Health Professions 19 11%
Social Sciences 5 3%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 3%
Computer Science 3 2%
Other 16 10%
Unknown 32 19%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 August 2020.
All research outputs
#4,298,081
of 25,457,858 outputs
Outputs from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#6,584
of 11,842 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#66,677
of 396,995 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#152
of 255 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,457,858 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,842 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 38.9. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 396,995 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 255 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 40th percentile – i.e., 40% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.