Desferrioaxamine is typically administered to patients suffering from iron overload e.g. in conditions such as thalassaemia, sickle cell anaemia and Blackfan Diamond syndrome. The drug is usually administered at home via the subcutaneous route using either a syringe driver or preferably an ambulatory infuser (e.g. Paragon ™ ).

Because desferrioxamine is quite a viscous material (and viscosity is concentration-dependent), the flow rates obtainable from ambulatory infusors containing desferrioxamine will not be the same as might be expected from the label flow rate. Instead it is necessary to adjust concentrations and/or volumes in order to obtain the appropriate infusion time. For the Paragon pump this is easily achieved using the table below.

It should be noted that patient compliance can be an issue with desferrioxamine therapy and this is one of the reasons why ready-to-use infusions should be considered (as opposed to patients reconstituting drug at home).