Patients who require repeated blood transfusions to live accumulate iron in the body as blood cells contain iron and there is no natural body mechanism to eliminate it. After a while the iron levels get high enough to be toxic to the body. The current therapy of choice is deferoxamine, which does a good job of removing excess iron, but is difficult to administer. Deferoxamine requires subcutaneous (under the skin) infusions over 4 to 8 hours nightly 3 to 7 nights per week. In addition to the need to wear an infusion pump nightly, adverse reactions around the site of the injection are frequent.
