Better Blood Sugar Management Cuts Hospital Stay

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Doctors who follow a standard plan for blood sugar control in diabetic patients hospitalized with foot ulcers will send their patients home sooner.

That's the key finding from researchers at Stroger Hospital of Cook County in Chicago who looked at outcomes for 23 type 2 diabetes patients admitted to their facility for diabetic foot ulcers surgery. Investigators randomly assigned patients to one of two groups. The first group received standardized insulin therapy, also called a protocol-driven subcutaneous insulin therapy group. The second group received individualized blood sugar management.

Patients in the first group were able to go home from the hospital about two and a half days sooner than patients in the individualized management group. The outcome was so impressive, the hospital decided to stop further study and implement the protocol hospital-wide.

"Our study shows that protocol-driven insulin therapy results in a better glycemic outcome, improving the quality of care and achieving standard of care goals," reports study author Alicia Leung, M.D.

High blood sugar is currently the fourth most common condition seen in patients hospitalized for other condtitions.

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SOURCE: Presented at the American Association of Clinical 16th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress in Seattle, April 11-15, 2007