High weekly intravenous doses of desferrioxamine in porphyria cutanea tarda.

Two elderly patients with sporadic porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) and severe associated diseases were treated with high weekly intravenous doses of desferrioxamine. This therapy proved more effective than slow subcutaneous desferrioxamine infusion and no adverse effect was recorded. We consider high dose intravenous desferrioxamine a suitable treatment for those PCT patients with severe associated diseases who are unable to apply the technique of subcutaneous desferrioxamine infusion.