Efficiency of Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Critically Ill Patients

Hyperglycemia is associated with more complications and higher morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Therefore, strict glycemic control with a target blood glucose level between 80 and 110 mg/dl is recommended. Intensive insulin therapy requires continuous intravenous insulin infusion according to an algorithm and frequent blood glucose measurements. Implementation of intensive insulin therapy increases workload for both physicians and especially for nurses. The current gold-standard in intensive care units to achieve normoglycemia in critically ill patients is intensive insulin therapy according to a well established algorithm along with frequent blood glucose measurements. However, applying this gold-standard method, normoglycemia, defined as blood glucose levels below 110 mg/dl, can be achieved in approximately 50 percent of time only. We hypothesized, that real-time continuous glucose monitoring would increase the percentage of time of blood glucose levels below 110 mg/dl in critically ill patients.