Treating Anemia

Anemia is a medical condition characterized by declining body strength in carrying out various physical tasks and fatigue. Like fever, anemia also needs thorough investigation to figure out the underlying etiology. Physicians often tend to overlook mild anemia that could become serious if ignored for long. Anemia can crudely be defined as a decline in the mass of RBCs.

As methods for gauging RBC mass usually take a toll over time and money, the disease is usually diagnosed by measuring the hemoglobin concentration, RBC count, and hematocrit. However, great care must be taken while handling all these data, as these entities tend to vary with the plasma volume.

Treatment of Anemia

Treatment for Anemia can be studied under following sub-topics:

Medical Care – Intensive medical care is extremely necessary in case of anemia. Here are some crucial tips that must be followed to assure effective and quick treatment from anemia.

• Transfusion of packed erythrocytes must be kept in reserve for the patients who have symptomatic anemia and for the patients who are bleeding actively. This transfusion is only palliative and mustn’t be seen as replacement for specific therapy. However, in case of chronic anemia, erythropoietin may prove to be beneficial in averting the transfusion of packed erythrocytes.
• Correction of underlying cause followed by oral administration of ferrous sulfate is the most appropriate treatment technique for anemia triggered due to blood loss. Oral administration of ferrous sulfate ensures restoration of depleted iron content from blood.
• In order to deal with the deficiency of folic acid, iron, and vitamin B-12 physicians usually rely on nutritional therapy. Evidently, consumption of pyridoxine may prove to be beneficial in treating sideroblastic anemia, even though it’s not a deficiency disorder at all.
• Corticosteroids are found to be beneficial in the treatment of autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
• Drugs or medications that trigger the production of aplasia or hinder the maturation of erythroid precursors must be discontinued with immediate effect.

Surgical Care – Surgical methods also play a vital role in treating severe anemia. Importance of surgery can be summed up as:

• Surgery is very useful to check bleeding in anemic patients. Most commonly, this bleeding is from the uterus, the bladder, or from part of the gastrointestinal tract. It must be ensured that the patients undergoing surgery must be hemodynamically stable before and at the time of surgery.
• It has been found that splenectomy is very beneficial in treating hemolytic anemia and other hereditary hemolytic diseases, such as hereditary elliptocytosis, some unstable Hb disorders, and deficiency of pyruvic kinase.
• Patients with leukemia, Hodgkin disease, and lymphoma can be treated with stem cell and bone marrow transplantation.

Diet – Different forms of anemia usually have its roots in the deficiency of iron. Diet rich in fish and meat can be helpful in replenishing the lost iron content in human body. However, vegetarians can enhance iron content by consuming green leafy vegetables and other commercially available iron B-12 supplements. Consulting a professional dietician for enhancing iron intake is always recommended.