Blood sugar changes and hospital mortality in multiple trauma.

OBJECTIVES: Hyperglycemia with unknown mechanism plays a predictive role in determining the prognosis of multiple trauma patients. The exact time of blood sugar measurement and the role of blood sugar changes in the monitoring of these patients have not been well established.

METHODS: This follow-up study was done on multiple trauma patients (>18years) with an Injury Severity Scores (ISS)>16. These patients didn't have any history of diabetes, underlying disease, or drug or alcohol use. Data collection was done by the questionnaire (checklist), and the patients were followed by the medical records. Cox regression was used to measure the effect of independent variables on the patients' hospital mortality.

RESULTS: Of a total of 963 patients, 280 patients were enrolled. Of those, 202 were male (72.1%) and 78 were female (27.9%). Hospital mortality was 18 (6.4%). Cox regression analysis suggested that those who had high blood sugar 3h after admission had higher hospital mortality (P=0.04). Changes in blood sugar, ΔBS (BS 3h after admission - BS on admission), in these patients was also significantly correlated with hospital mortality (P<0.001). The multivariate model using the backward conditional method showed that ΔBS (P<0.001), international normalized ration (INR) (P<0.001), and heart rate (P=0.036) were significantly correlated with hospital mortality.

CONCLUSIONS: In multiple trauma patients, blood sugar changes in the early hours of admission to the emergency department may help predict hospital mortality, but further studies are needed. Blood sugar monitoring in these patients during this time frame may be helpful in predicting these patients' outcomes. In addition, coagulopathy and tachycardia were significantly associated with hospital mortality.