Table 1

Variable	IV	Oral	Control
Length of Stay (days)1	6.24 ± 2.51	8.0 ± 3.62 (p value against IV 0.06)	7.72 ± 4.18 (p value against IV 0.04) (p value against oral 0.83)
Immediate pre-operative Hb (post-treatment)	128.47 ± 11.05	118.44 ± 9.23* (p value against IV =0.01)	116 ± 8.46* (p value against IV =0.001 (p value against oral 0.51)
48 Hour Hb	92.65 ± 12.57^a P value against pre op <0.001	87.75 ± 11.73^a Not different from IV p =0.35 P value against pre op is <0.001	87.91 ± 12.72^a Not different from IV p=0.26 Not different from oral p=0.62 P value against pre op =<0.001
6 week postoperative Hb	120.88 ± 13.80^ab P value against pre op <0.001 P value against 48 hr Hb <0.001	108.94 ± 11.15^ab Not different from IV p=0.7 P value against preop is 0.01 P vale against 48 hr Hb is <0.001	Not available
No. of Packed RBCs units given in the peri-operative period	1.5 ± 0.58	2.22 ± 0.83 P against IV = 0.09	2.44 ± 0.73* P against IV =0.04 P against oral 0.50

Results presented as mean and standard deviation
¹Data analysed with ordinal logistic regression.
*Significantly different from IV group
^aSignificantly different from Preoperative Hb in the same intervention group;
^bSignificantly different from 48 hours Hb in the same intervention

Table 1: Comparison between both intervention groups and control group in terms of Hb levels at different trial points entry, length of hospital stay and number of transfused packed RBCs units.