[Hospital in-patients with diabetes]

Abstract

As the diabetic population is becoming older, hospitalization is more frequent and of longer duration with increased costs. Hospital stay could be a good opportunity to improve diabetes care. All observational studies demonstrate that improving metabolic control reduces mortality, morbidity and hospitalisation costs. For critically ill patients and those referred for myocardial infarction or submitted to cardiac surgery, randomised controlled studies have proven the efficacy of strict metabolic control and defined the targets to be reached. Unfortunately, for many reasons, it is difficult to treat the patients to the targets and in non specialized departments, diabetes control may even be worse during hospitalisation. We urgently need to find innovating solutions to mitigate the consequences of the reduced number of competent nurses and doctors in the field of diabetes.