High blood glucose level and increased risk of mortality in critically ill patients

102 patients, 38 from ICU and 64 from postoperative ward were evaluated. Out of these, 49 of the patients had random blood glucose level < 100 mg/dl, 46 had in the range 100 to 140 mg/dl and 7 had > 140 mg/dl. The mean random blood glucose level in medical patients was 146 mg/dl with a standard deviation of 20 and that in the post operative patients was 94.3 mg/dl with a standard deviation of 10. There was an overall mortality of 13.7% (14 patients), of which medical patients were 78.6% (11 patients) and surgical patients were 21.4% (3 patients). Amongst the dead, 81.8% had random blood glucose level > 110 mg/dl and all were medical patients. However all 3 deaths (18.2%) in surgical patients had their random blood glucose level < 110 mg/dl. Higher blood glucose level was observed in critically ill medical patients and mortality was higher among patients with random blood glucose level > 110 mg/dl.