PHILADELPHIA—New study findings do not support guideline recommendations to withhold intravenous (IV) iron in hemodialysis (HD) patients hospitalized for infections, according to a presentation at the 2014 Kidney Week meeting.
Using the U.S. Renal Data System database, a team led by Julie H. Ishida, MD, of the University of California San Francisco identified 23,306 Medicare-covered adults on in-center HD who had received IV iron within 14 days of their first hospitalization for bacterial infection in 2010.
The researchers looked at the association between receipt of IV iron at any point from admission to discharge compared with no receipt of IV iron and all-cause mortality (within 30 days of admission and in 2010), readmission for infection within 30 days of discharge, and length of hospital stay.
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Receipt of IV iron was generally not associated with age, dialysis vintage, comorbidities, or the infected organ system.
Of the 23,306 subjects, 2,684 died within 30 days of admission and 7,059 died in 2010, with a median follow-up time of 173 days. Receipt of IV iron was not significantly associated with any of the outcomes measures.
