High blood sugar levels for diabetes patients in hospital not a danger

Mon, 21 Feb 2011
New guidelines that have been issued by the American College of Physicians state that it is not crucial to ensure that high levels of blood sugar are properly managed for people with diabetes during their visits to hospital.

The guidelines, which were recently reported in HealthDay News, claim that healthcare professionals who are treating patients with diabetes in either medical or surgical intensive care units should not be too focused on achieving close management of blood sugar levels .

With most people with diabetes looking to keep blood sugar at less than 140 mg/l (7.8 mmols/l), the physicians group has recommended that blood sugar should be maintained around the 140 to 200 mg/dl (7.8 to 11.1 mmols/l) levels during hospital stays . Levels of blood sugar for those people who do not suffer from the metabolic condition are normally between 80 mg/dl and 120 mg/dl (4.4 to 6.7 mmols/l).

These recommendations are also in line with that of two other groups, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), although both these organisations argue that blood sugar levels should be kept below 180 mg/dl (10 mmols/l) so as to reduce the chances of infection.

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