[Treatments of the martial deficiencies: preparations available in France].

The financial advantage of the oral treatments of iron is minimised by their low bioavailibility (10 to 20%) and the fact that instructions for oral treatments are often badly followed by the patient (eg: tablets taken too far away from meals inducing frequent digestive problems). In France, since Maltofer (hydroxic ferric polymaltose) has been discontinued, Venofer (complex hydroxide ferric saccharose) is the only alternative intraveinous treatment with a cost which is now ten times higher than it was before. In foreign countries, other specialised products for intraveinous treatments (notably with a base of dextran iron with low molecular weight) have shown similar efficiency and are as safe to use as the complex hydroxide ferric saccharose. The hypothesis of a better control of the oxydative stress in giving a prophylactic treatment of 20 to 50 mg of hydroxide ferric saccharose at each treatment (because of the presence of free plasmatic iron) must be validated and the conditioning by unit may have to be adjusted.