To determine the frequency of eye and auditory complications and their relationship to drug dosage and iron stores in patients receiving deferoxamine, we studied 52 regularly transfused patients who received deferoxamine by subcutaneous or intravenous infusion in doses from 26 to 136 mg/kg/day, and whose serum ferritin levels of 185 to 17,775 micrograms/L reflected a wide range of iron stores. Forty-nine patients (94%) had no evidence of drug-induced visual or auditory abnormalities. Symptomatic loss of vision and hearing developed in one patient; both problems improved when chelation therapy was stopped. Of the 51 symptom-free patients, one had a mild degree of macular stippling and one had a mild, bilateral, high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Eye and ear abnormalities in the symptom-free patients did not progress despite continuation or resumption of chelation therapy at the same dosage. Patients with ophthalmologic and audiologic abnormalities did not receive higher doses of deferoxamine and did not have lower serum ferritin levels than patients without such abnormalities. These findings demonstrate that eye and ear abnormalities during chelation therapy with deferoxamine may not occur uniformly at as high a frequency as previously reported, even in patients who receive large doses of the chelating agent or who have only modest amounts of excessive iron.