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Anika Islam: A ‘Normal’ Hemoglobin Doesn’t Mean Your Patient is Safe for Surgery
Anika Islam/LinkedIn
May 7, 2026, 15:37

Anika Islam: A ‘Normal’ Hemoglobin Doesn’t Mean Your Patient is Safe for Surgery

Anika Islam, Head of Strategic Communications at B2BMAP, Resident Doctor at Bangladesh Medical University, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“A ‘normal’ hemoglobin doesn’t mean your patient is safe for surgery.

Most surgical teams stop at Hb. If it’s normal than it’s green signal.

That’s the mistake.

Hemoglobin shows what’s circulating. It doesn’t show what’s in reserve.

A patient can have:

  • Normal Hb
  • Critically low ferritin

Ferritin less than 30 ng/mL indicates an empty tank, even if Hb looks perfect. This is non-anemic iron deficiency (NAID).

And it’s easy to miss.

Now take that patient into surgery:

  • 300–500 ml blood loss
  • No reserve leading to rapid Hb drop
  • Transfusion risk increases

The patient didn’t start anemic.

They started unprepared.

We don’t miss anemia.We miss iron deficiency.

Do you check ferritin before major surgery—or rely only on Hb?”

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anemia Anika Islam Blood Ferritin Hb Health Hematology Hemoglobin Hemostasis Hemostasis News Hemostasis Today Iron-Deficiency Medicine NAID Non-Anemic Iron Deficiency
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