Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Episodes of poorly controlled diabetes (DM) are one of the most frequent medical complications during hospitalization in the elderly population.

Goals: To analyze the mortality rate (M) in patients with DM who undergo some medical decompensation during admission to Vascular Surgery and Angiology (VS).

Material and methods: Descriptive analysis of patients admitted to VS who suffered some type of medical decompensation that needed to notify a team of Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Cardiology. We analyze the patients with known DM and their M.

Results: From February 2011 to December 2014, 173 consultations for Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Nephrology or Cardiology were carried out regarding patients admitted to the VS area who had suffered any medical decompensation during admission. Of these patients, 94 (49.1%) had a documented history of DM. Its M was 23.4% (22 patients), with the M of the decompensated patients being 16.76%.

Conclusions: DM is a single cause of medical decompensation in 4.6% of patients admitted to the VS. However, associated with decompensation of other vascular risk factors, one out of four known diabetics had abnormal blood glucose levels. Patients with a history of DM, decompensated or not, present a M that is much higher than the overall M of decompensated patients in this area. We suggest that an early assessment of glycemia and strict monitoring of diabetic patients suffering from some medical decompensation in VS, by Cardiology, Nephrology, Endocrinology or Internal Medicine could be beneficial in terms of morbidity and mortality.