Anatolian Current Medical Journal

Yazarlar: Kenan ÇADIRCI, Muharrem BAYRAK, Havva KESKİN, Sultan Tuna AKGOL GUR

Konular:Sağlık Bilimleri ve Hizmetleri

DOI:10.30450/agtd.690557

Anahtar Kelimeler:Hypoglycemia,Emergency clinic,Etiology

Özet: Aim: Hypoglycemia is a syndrome deriving from blood glucose levels falling sufficiently to produce symptoms and capable of resulting in severe morbidity and mortality. Hypoglycemia occupies an important place among emergency department presentations. It can be diagnosed through an accurate history and suspicion on the part of the physician and causes a variety of clinical findings, from mild loss of concentration to loss of consciousness and death. The purpose of this study was examine the etiologies of patients with hypoglycemia detected at presentation to the emergency department. Material and Method: One hundred eighty-three patients wıth hypoglycemia dıagnosed during presentation to our emergency department and confirmed biochemically and clinically were included in the study. Hypoglycemia was defined as a venous blood glucose level below70 mg/dl. Pregnant women and patients aged under 18 were excluded. Results: One hundred fourteen patients (62.3%) were men and69 (37.7%) were women. Mean age was55.1±27.0 years and mean venous blood glucose level was 44.8±7.1 mg/ dl. Hypoglycemia etiologies involved diabetes in 148 patients (80.8%), alcohol use in 16(8.8%), sepsis in eight (4.4%), cancer or cancer metastasis in seven (3.8%), hypoglycemia developing against a background of cirrhosis of the liver in two (1.1%), presence of Addison disease and medication discontinuation in one (0.55%), and insulinemia developing in a diabetic patient (0.55%). The most common cause of hypoglycemia among diabetic patients was skipped meals (42.9%). Forty-nine diabetic patients used insulin, 50 used oral antidiabetics, and 50 used a combination of insulin and oral antidiabetics. Discussion: Hypoglycemia is an emergency clinical condition causing severe morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis may be difficult due to the wide variety of symptoms, the patient being potentially too severely neurologically affected to provide a history at presentation to the emergency department, and the possibility of simultaneous presence of clinical symptoms and findings of other diseases. Awareness that the etiology of hypoglycemia mustbe investigated in addition to the symptomatology and emergency treatment is therefore important in terms of the subsequent therapeutic approach. ,

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