Anaemia due to Vitamin B12 or Folic Acid deficiency

Vitamin Bl2 has to be administered by intra-muscular injection, as absorption of the vitamin in this condition is impaired. Usually the injection is administered initially on a weekly basis, until the blood count is normal, and thereafter every three months lifelong.

Folic Acid is administered orally, once per day, and again maintenance therapy is continued for life.

With the maintenance of a normal blood count by adequate specific therapy, the patient will remain healthy, and has a normal life expectancy. In the untreated case, rarely seen nowadays, the disease runs a course that is progressive and usually insidious. Death occurs from anaemia with or without the complication of sub-acute combined degeneration of the spinal cord (a neurological complication), or from intercurrent infection. Adequate treatment of patients suffering from sub-acute combined degeneration of the cord prevents further deterioration, and may produce considerable functional improvement if the process is not too far advanced.