A STUDY OF SEVERE ANEMIA IN ELDERLY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ETIOLOGY

This study was a prospective, observational study conducted over two years in a tertiary care hospital in Navi Mumbai, India, to study severe Anemia in the elderly with a special reference to etiology. Owing to India's increasing elderly population, Anemia in the elderly is a common condition that is vastly overlooked. The study included 50 individuals with severe Anemia (Hb less than 8g/dL), with an age more than or equal to 60 years. Our study's age varied from 60 to 82 years, with maximum patients from 60 to 65. Easy fatigability was present in 80% of patients, followed by anorexia, tiredness, breathlessness, and pedal edema. Generalized weakness, black colored stools, jaundice, headache, dysphagia, intermittent claudication, giddiness, and lower limb weakness and paresthesia were some other symptoms experienced by these patients. The most common type of Anemia among elderly patients, as found through this study, was microcytic
hypochromic, followed by normocytic normochromic, dimorphic, and macrocytic hyperchromic Anemia. Severe Anemia in the elderly had varied manifestations.