[Diabetic coma: incidence of infections and mortality (author's transl)]

An analysis of 752 cases of severe diabetic coma during the period 1931 to 1973 showed that infections were present in one or more organs in 58% of the cases. The incidence of infections showed an increase from 53% (1931 to 1940 to 57% (1961 to 1970), with a further rise to 61%(1971 to 1973). A decrease in pulmonary infections from 40% to 17% and a distinct increase in urogenitial tract infections from 6% to 20% and in multiple infective complications from 3% to 7% were the most striking findings. The incidence of infections in other organs (abdominal, dermatological, laryngological and miscellaneous) remained virtually constant over the individual decades. Mortality was altogether higher in patients with infections (30% versus 20% in patients without infections). The highest mortality (35%) was recorded in the period 1951 to 1960; THE latest figure was 29%(1971 to 1973). Antibiotics are presumeably responsible for the decrease in the initially high mortality rate of 41% to 50% in urogenitial tract infections to 23% for the decade 1961-1970, with a further drop to 18% in the most recent period (1971 to 1973). Similarly, with multiple infections the mortality of 100% up till 1950 decreased to a recent figure of 63%, partly on account of the introduction of intensive care therapy during the past years. In abdominal infections there was also a distinct decrease in mortality form 43% to 14%, whilst in pulmonary infections the mortality remained at about the same level (24% to 28%).