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 Dr. Mathieu:
This is CME on PACE CME and ReachMD, and I'm Chantal Mathieu. I’m an endocrinologist from Leuven, Belgium. In this episode, we will review complications of diabetes and hospitalizations in people with type 2 diabetes. We recognize that the importance and the treatment of people living with type 2 diabetes is really to improve quality of life, and we know that quality of life is directly related to chronic complications, microvascular or macrovascular complications, but also acute complications. And many of these complications will bring people into the hospital. Indeed, microvascular complications, foot problems for instance, but also, macrovascular complications with acute myocardial infarctions and CVAs are very often reasons for bringing people living with type 2 diabetes into the hospital. And then, the trouble begins. 

I often say that the most dangerous place for a person living with diabetes to be is the hospital, because indeed, very often they will stay on wards that are not used to treating people living with diabetes. In particular, people living with the newer therapies or treated with insulin. And so, those adaptations will have to happen throughout the stay in the hospital. 

The problem when people living with diabetes are coming into a hospital is that the length of stay of those with diabetes is often longer than the length of stay of those without diabetes. And that's not only the case when people come into hospital because of complications of diabetes. Also, when people with diabetes are in a hospital for surgery, for instance, that has nothing to do with a complication, we can see that the duration of the surgery and the duration of the hospital stay is longer in people with diabetes. So, a lot of attention on glycemic control in the hospital is needed. 

So, chronic complications can bring people with diabetes into a hospital, but unfortunately, also acute complications bring people with type 2 diabetes into the hospital. We know that especially severe hypoglycemic attacks are a reason for admissions into the emergency room and into other wards of the hospital. For instance, a study by Singh et al that was presented at the EASD showed that type 2 diabetes was responsible for over 248,000 hospitalizations in the US in the year 2009. 

Also, hypoglycemic attacks that are severe and need hospitalization really impact the health-related quality of life of those living with diabetes. 

So, in conclusion, complications of diabetes lead to hospitalizations, and hospitalizations in those living with type 2 diabetes, are often a reason for many problems during this hospitalization. Hospitalizations are longer and also impact on the quality of life of individuals with diabetes.

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