[Low doses of insulin--comparison between hyperosmolar nonketotic coma and diabetic ketoacidosis (author's transl)]

The authors present a comparison between the results achieved in the treatment of 11 cases of nonketotic hyperosmolar "coma" and 13 cases of diabetic ketoacidosis using low doses of intramuscular insulin hourly. Surprisingly both, larger amounts of insulin and longer periods were needed to compensate the metabolic disturbance of the nonketotic hyperosmolar "coma" cases when compared to the ketoacidosis ones. The data obtained in this study suggest a possible direct relationship between the initial urea levels and the total amount of insulin needed to reduce the initial glycemia to a normal glycemic level.