FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Newswise — In a rigorous medical records study covering tens of thousands of patients, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that some patients with preoperative anemia have better outcomes if they get iron infusions before surgery rather than standard red blood cell transfusions. The findings, published July 22 in Anesthesia & Analgesia , contribute to mounting evidence that such iron infusions, which boost the production of a person’s own red blood cells, are better than relying on someone else’s blood. “Anemia is incredibly common, especially in surgical patients, and until recently the default treatment has been blood transfusions prior to the procedure,” says Steven Frank, M.
D. , professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “However, our retrospective study showed a benefit of iron infusions over preoperative blood transfusions in decreasing morbidity and mortality, increasing hemoglobin and decreasing the need for blood transfusions.
” Iron is a mineral that the human body needs to make hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to organs throughout the body. If there is insufficient iron in a patient’s blood, the person becomes anemic, meaning there are not enough healthy red blood cells to deliver enough oxygen. This is particularly concerning for patients undergoing surgery because there is almost always some amount of blood loss during any proce.