Intravenous insulin therapy in diabetes mellitus with hyperglycemic crisis and intercurrent illness

Background Hyperglycemic crisis is one of the complications of diabetes mellitus, which is common in hospitalized diabetic patient with intercurrent illness, requiring immediate action to control blood glucose. As an effort to attain rapid, gradually and more definite blood glucose, insulin is given intravenously. This study aimed to explore the patterns of blood glucose in hyperglycemic crisis and intercurrent illness, precipitating conditions, insulin regimen and blood glucose (BG) level results. Methods It was a cross-sectional study conducted on type 2 diabetic patients. The inclusion criteria were as follows: hospitalized in the general/internal medicine ward with or without any complication or comorbidity receiving intravenous insulin therapy; have pre- and post-BG data after insulin intervention. Results In 3 months of the study period, 22 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria with 28 cases of intravenous insulin therapy, and 1 patient could get more than one intervention. The major condition toward a hyperglycemic crisis condition was infection. The patient's BG before interventions was 243 mg/dL to more than 600 mg/dL. The dosage of insulin varied from 4 to 10 units per hour, intravenously with a frequency of 1-4 times. The dosage consideration was not only based on BG levels but also on the patient's condition. The reduction in BG level varied greatly between 0.2 and 28.1 mg/dL per unit of insulin. The BG level of three patients did not decrease. On the other hand, one patient experienced mild hypoglycemia. Conclusions Infection conditions were the most common factor for the hyperglycemia crisis. Moreover, intravenous insulin dosing was done individually, and there was a large variation in the results of the decrease in BG levels.