The efficacy of a single dose of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose (Ferinject) on anaemia in a pre-dialysis population of chronic kidney disease patients.

Anaemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common and may be managed with erythropoiesis stimulating agents and/or iron preparations. Iron preparations may be administered orally, intravenously or by intramuscular injection. Oral preparations pose a significant tablet burden on patients who are often taking multiple medications and may have undesirable gastrointestinal side effects. The existing intravenous preparation Venofer requires multiple doses of drug (typically 100-200 mg) at multiple clinic visits. The preparation Cosmofer may be given as a single dose, but this requires four to six hours to administer. For these reasons, their use in pre-dialysis patients remains limited in practice. The new intravenous iron preparation Ferric Carboxymaltose (Ferinject) may be given as a single dose of up to 1000 mg (but not exceeding 15 mg/kg/week) as an infusion over 6-15 minutes. This offers a significant advance in the management of these patients. We describe our initial experience with using this drug in a non-dialysis patient population with chronic kidney disease.