Therapeutic Action of Injectio Ferri B.P: (Section of Therapeutics and Pharmacology).

The injection of iron, which was introduced into the British Pharmacopoeia, 1932, has been carefully tested in ten cases of anaemia.The parenteral administration of iron is rarely desirable, because the therapeutic dose of iron by injection is so near to the toxic dose. Injectio Ferri B.P. has a very low therapeutic efficiency owing to its small content of iron; it is also painful, though this may be corrected by the addition of a local anaesthetic such as 3% procaine hydrochloride.Double the maximum official dose of Injectio Ferri B.P., i.e. 14 mgm. of metallic iron, can apparently be safely given at one injection, but it would be necessary to give this dose twice a day for about six weeks to equal the effects of large doses of iron by mouth. The treatment of anaemia by weekly or bi-weekly injections of small doses of iron is irrational and to be deplored.