Intravenous iron supplementation may be superior to observation in acute isovolemic anemia after gastrectomy for cancer

Table 1 Demographic and clinicopathologic data n (%)

Variables	Iron group (n = 63)	Observation group (n = 60)	P value
Age (yr), mean ± SD	63.2 ± 12.3	64.4 ± 10.2	0.5601
Gender (male/female)	37:26	30:30	0.3312
Operation type			0.8782
Subtotal gastrectomy	38	36
Total gastrectomy	25	24
Stage of cancer (AJCC 6th)			0.0362
I and II	28 (44.4)	38 (63.3)
III and IV	35 (55.6)	22 (36.7)
Combined resection			0.6102
None	48 (76.2)	48 (75)
Done	15 (23.8)	12 (25)
Adjuvant chemotherapy			0.0022
No	39 (61.9)	52 (86.7)
Yes	24 (38.1)	8 (13.3)

¹Student’s t test;

²Pearson χ² test. AJCC: American Joint Committee on Cancer.

Table 2 Hematologic laboratory data and morbidity before treatment n (%)

	Iron group	Observation group	P value1
	(n = 63)	(n = 60)
Hematologic laboratory data
Hemoglobin (g/dL) , mean ± SD	7.3 ± 1.0	8.4 ± 0.5	< 0.001
Hematocrit, mean ± SD	23.8 ± 3.3	26.4 ± 1.9	< 0.001
Mean MCV (fL), mean ± SD	85.1 ± 8.9	87.4 ± 7.8	0.130
Mean MCHC (g/dL), mean ± SD	31.0 ± 1.3	31.9 ± 1.4	< 0.001
Morbidity
Surgical	4 (6.3)	8 (13.3)	0.192
Non-surgical	8 (12.7)	3 (5.0)	0.135
Major	6 (9.5)	2 (3.3)	0.164
Minor	16 (25.4)	10 (16.7)	0.236
Adverse events	0 (0.0)	NA

¹Student’s t test, Pearson χ² test. MCV: Mean corpuscular volume; MCHC: Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; NA: Not applicable.