High blood sugar in hospitalized patients tied to longer length of stay: Study

Chile: A recent study has found that more than half of hospitalized patients are affected by hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) during hospitalization which is associated with a longer length of stay. The study findings appear in the journal Revista Médica de Chile.

Prior to the study, it is known that hyperglycemia is a highly prevalent problem in hospitalized patients and is associated with adverse outcomes. Hyperglycemia may be due to a high rate of obesity, prediabetes, and diabetes. However, about half of the hyperglycemia cases occur in patients without a history of diabetes and may be explained by counter regulatory hormones secreted in response to the stress derived from diseases causing hospitalization, which, in addition, may have therapies complex that generate unwanted metabolic effects.

Against the above background, Bruno Grassi, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, and colleagues aimed to characterize the frequency of hyperglycemia in a tertiary hospital and to correlate it with the length of hospital stay (LOS).

For this purpose, the researchers performed a review of hospitalized patients' medical records. They recorded demographic data and laboratory data, previous diabetes mellitus (DM) history, current main diagnosis, unit of hospitalization and the two highest capillary blood glucose values from the analyzed period for each patient. LOS was obtained from electronic clinical records.