[Knack of treatment with oral hypoglycemic drugs in the elderly]
Mitsuhisa Komatsu1, Kiyoshi Hashizume
1Department of Aging Medicine and Geriatrics, Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine.
Abstract:
In the treatment of elderly type 2 diabetes, it is important to detect hypoglycemia correctly, because the elderly patients often exhibit atypical symptoms from hypoglycemia. Oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA), which do not stimulate insulin release from pancreas, is rather safe and may be the first choice for the elderly patients. OHAs that stimulate insulin secretion weakly or temporally might be useful drug for controlling elderly diabetic patients characterized by post-prandial hyperglycemia. Strong-acting sulfonylurea must be use with a great caution. Importantly, once glycemic control comes to a fail even after an appropriate combination of OHAs, initiation of insulin injection therapy must be considered.
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