Diabetic coma in children

Abstract

1. In a group of 218 children (first and second decade) there were fifty instances of coma. 2. Of the thirty-one children who were under my immediate care during coma, five died. Three of these were moribund when they arrived and died one hour after admission. One died in the pre-insulin era. One died on the second day of cardiac failure. 3. Of the nineteen children from my series of 218 who were treated by the family physician during coma, sixteen died and three survived. 4. The sex incidence of coma in diabetic children is practically evenly divided: twenty-seven boys and twenty-three girls. 5. The total mortality in both groups was twenty-one cases. Of these, eleven were boys and ten girls. Twelve or 57.1 per cent died in their first year of diabetes; 66.6 per cent died during the first two years of diabetes. 6. The differential diagnosis and methods of treatment are discussed.