Hypoglycaemic coma due to chlorpropamide: observations on twenty-two patients

Twenty-two patients with chlorpropamide-induced hypoglycaemic coma were seen at a medical centre serving a region with a large geriatric population. The median age of the patients was 72; seven were over 80 and only one was under 60. Four patients died and in three of them death appeared to be connected with the hypoglycaemia. In two cases, the hypoglycaemia appeared in the postoperative period. Generally accepted contra-indications to the use of chlorpropamide were present in five of the eight patients under 70 and in four of the 14 patients over 70. If full precautions had been taken in presecribing chlorpropamide and if old age had been regarded as a contra-indication, the hypoglycaemia might have been prevented in 19 out of the 22 patients.