A multicentre prospective observational study of the prevalence of preoperative anaemia and iron deficiency in adult elective surgical patients in hospitals in Western Cape Province, South Africa.

CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative anaemia was common in this study, and more than half of the affected patients had moderate to severe anaemia. Iron deficiency was responsible for almost 40% of cases. Iron supplementation was under-utilised in the preoperative period as a means of increasing haemoglobin. The introduction of system-wide policies would empower perioperative physicians to mitigate the risk associated with preoperative anaemia in the Western Cape. PMID: 31865945 [PubMed - in process]
Source: South African Medical Journal - Category: African Health Tags: S Afr Med J Source Type: research