Safety and Efficacy of a Peri-Operative Protocol for Patients with Diabetes Treated with Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion who are Admitted for Same-Day Surgery

Abstract

The number of people with diabetes using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusions (CSII) with an insulin pump has risen dramatically, creating new challenges when these patients are admitted to the hospital for surgical or other procedures. There is limited literature guiding CSII use during surgical procedures. The study was carried out in a large, urban, tertiary care hospital. We enrolled 49 patients using insulin pump therapy presenting for 57 elective surgeries. We developed a CSII peri-operative glycemic management protocol (PGMP) to standardize insulin pump management in patients admitted to a same-day surgery unit (SDSU). The purpose was evaluate the safety (% capillary blood glucose (CBG) <70 mg/dL and/or pump incidents) and efficacy (first postoperative CBG ≤200 mg/dL) of the CSII PGMP. We determine the contribution of admission CBG, type of anesthesia, surgery length, and peri-operative steroid use on postoperative glycemic control. Overall, 63% of patients treated according to the CSII PGMP had a first postoperative CBG ≤200 mg/dL. There were no episodes of intra- or postoperative hypoglycemia. For patients treated with the CSII PGMP, the mean postoperative CBG was lower in patients with anticipated or actual surgical length ≤120 minutes (158.1 ± 53.9 vs. 216 ± 77.7 mg/dL, P<.01). No differences were observed with admission CBG, type of anesthesia, or steroid use. This study demonstrates that a CSII PGMP is both safe and effective for patients admitted for elective surgical procedures and provides an example of a standardized protocol for use in clinical practice.