@article{ref1,
title="Causes, morbidity and management of drug-induced hypoglycemic coma in non-diabetic patients",
journal="Acta Endocrinologica",
year="2009",
author="Sorodoc, L. and Lionte, C. and Sorodoc, V. and Petriş, O.R. and Badiu, C.",
volume="5",
number="3",
pages="337-348",
abstract="Introduction. In the community, hypoglycemic coma is commonly caused by therapies for diabetes mellitus, or excessive alcohol consumption. Little information is available on the causes and outcome of hypoglycemic coma in non-diabetic patients. Patients and Methods. We retrospectively surveyed adult patients admitted to a regional emergency hospital with hypoglycemic coma in a 18-years period, identifying 80 admissions of 79 patients. 72 cases (91.14%) presented hypoglycemic coma induced by anti-diabetic medications in attempted suicide. The others had hypoglycemic coma induced by deliberate self-poisoning with other drugs influencing glucose metabolism, sometimes associated with excessive consumption of alcohol. <br><br>RESULTS. A history of psychiatric illness was present in 15 patients (19%), and 2 cases (2.53%) had chronic alcoholism. Neurological manifestations of hypoglycemia were the principal reason for admission, observed in all patients, and 15 patients (19%) had precipitated convulsions. Although some patients received treatment for hypoglycemia before admission, hypoglycemia recurred in 12 cases (15.19%) in hospital. Morbidity included ventricular arrhythmias (8.86%), non-cardiogenic acute pulmonary edema (1.26%), and transient neurological disturbances, in 2 elderly patients. Two cases died following admission, but death was not the direct result of hypoglycemia. Therapeutic measures consisted in antidote therapy, toxin removal, and supportive therapy. <br><br>CONCLUSION. Though drug-induced hypoglycemic coma is rarely encountered in medical practice (2.44% in our study), management of these patients represents a challenging task in every practitioner.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1841-0987",
doi="10.4183/aeb.2009.337",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.4183/aeb.2009.337"
}