Continuous glucose monitoring devices in hospitalized pediatric patients

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) has revolutionized the landscape of diabetes management both in adults and pediatrics. CGM devices are now standard-of-care for pediatric diabetes management and are increasingly used in hospitalized patients. In the outpatient setting, studies show increasing analytical and clinical performance of CGM devices with improved diabetes outcomes. However, there are several inpatient factors that impact the accuracy of CGM devices relevant to hospitalized patients. The pediatric population is also the most vulnerable, and changes in management based on a false CGM reading can cause adverse events. Therefore, it is imperative to critically assess the accuracy and clinical performance of CGM devices in hospitalized pediatric patients. In this review, we assess the literature and summarize recent studies on the accuracy of CGM devices in pediatric inpatients, discuss regulatory requirements for their use, safety considerations, and procedures for confirmatory testing using standard-of-care glucose tests.