A prospective six-month audit of inpatient hypoglycemia in step-down general medical and geriatric wards

Penny Dwyer, Jocelyn J. Drinkwater, P. Gerry Fegan, Wendy A. Davis, Timothy M.E. Davis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the incidence and associates of hypoglycemia in patients transferred after stabilization on an Acute Medical Unit to two general medical or two geriatric wards at an urban Australian hospital. In a six-month audit representing 20,284 patient-days of observation, 59 inpatients experienced hypoglycaemia (blood glucose ≤3.9 mmol/L) during 65 hospitalizations. Inpatients experiencing hypoglycemia accounted for 7.2% of all inpatient bed-days, a figure that was greater for general medical (9.2% of bed-days) compared with geriatric (6.0% of bed-days) wards (P<0.001). Inpatient hypoglycemia often had no precipitant such as a missed/delayed meal, occurred disproportionately at night (41% of episodes), was severe (blood glucose ≤3.0 mmol/L) in one-third of cases, and appeared more frequent in patients with psychiatric/cognitive issues. These data highlight the ongoing issue of hypoglycemia in relatively stable inpatients in an era of blood glucose-lowering therapies associated with a low rate of this acute metabolic complication.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3744-3747
Number of pages4
JournalInternational Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume18
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

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