Elevated Blood Serum Ferritin Levels After Hip Replacement Surgery. What Does It Mean?

Posted on Mon, 18 Mar 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 Answered on

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Hello I had a hip replacement operation 8 weeks ago and have just had some blood test results which show that my blood serum feriritin is 217 ng/ml. Can you advise me what this means please

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (15 minutes later)

Hello!

Thank you for the query.

Ferritin is a protein which stores iron and releases it when its needed for hemoglobin production. It gets increased when there is inflammatory process present or when the body has too much iron.
Your level is only slightly above the norm what most likely does not indicate any disease. I suggest you to have CRP level and iron level checked(TIBC) to discriminate between an inflammation (CRP will be also increased) or iron overload.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (1 hour later)

When you say inflammatory process present what do you mean? Can this indicate that I have an infection of the wound area as it is very sensitive?

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (1 hour later)

By inflammatory I mean every possible inflammation in the whole body. Cant tell exact localisation as this proteins level(CRP and Ferritine) rises with every inflammation. It can be simple throat infection, like I have mentioned before, your ferritine level is only slightly elevated and does not have to indicate any pathology.

Hope this will help.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar