Pre-operative clinical trials

Preoperative Intravenous Iron Infusion to Reduce Post-surgical Complications: a Pilot Randomised Control Trial

Preoperative anemia is common worldwide, ranging from 25% in knee arthroplasties to 60% in colorectal malignancies. In Singapore, about a quarter (27%) of all patients have anaemia prior to operation at a main tertiary center. Currently, the rate of preoperative anemia in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is 26.6%. This is an alarming public health issue as the negative impact of preoperative anemia on post-surgical outcomes has been well documented and include increased rates of perioperative blood transfusion, mortality, adverse cardiac and non-cardiac complications including pulmonary complications, wound infections, systemic sepsis and venous thromboembolism, as well as prolonged length of hospital stay and increased healthcare costs. These data suggest that reducing preoperative anemia prior to major surgery is imperative to improve clinical outcomes and decrease healthcare costs. This study responds to an urgent need to optimize the current standard practice for managing preoperative anemia. It is designed as a randomised, open-label, study to investigate the efficacy of intravenous iron compared to oral iron in patients with anemia undergoing major surgery to reduce surgical complications. To demonstrate the feasibility of conducting such trial in a larger scale, a pilot study with the same design will be conducted. The findings of this pilot study will also inform the study design and sample size for the larger study. If successful, the results will inform clinical practice guidelines, result in better patient and clinical outcomes, reduce burden on the health care system, and change health-related policy. For example, all forms of intravenous iron therapy are currently not subsidized by the Singapore government which is in stark contrast with allogenic blood transfusion, which is subsidised and readily available at a substantially reduced rate to patients. Hence, it will cost the patients more out of pocket to be treated with intravenous iron than to have allogenic blood transfusion. Incorporating a preoperative anemia correction protocol in the current surgical pathway is a potential strategy to combat healthcare cost inflation and the increasing demand for blood products.