ABSTRACT
Insulin edema is known since a long time as a rare complication of insulin therapy. However, even today its pathogenesis remains unclear. Possible mechanisms involved are increased sodium retention by the kidney [2, 3] and increased loss of albumin from the circulation because of an insulin-induced increase in vascular permeability. We report three cases of adult patients, which presented with edema under insulin treatment. The first observation is a 52-year-old woman with diagnosed diabetes for 1 year, who developed edema a few days after initiation of insulin treatment [0, 9 Ul/kg/d]. The second observation is a 54-year-old woman who developed, ten years after initiation of insulin, generalized edema and two episods of cardiac failure, The third observation is a 42-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes since she was 20 years old. She presented an edema 20 years after the beginning of insulin treatment. In the two first cases, the stopping of insulin treatment resulted in resolution of edema. In the third one, any another cause of edema had been found. Insulin edema is a rare complication that always must be kept in mind, even after a long period of insulin treatment. In almost all the cases, it is not clinically evident. However, it sometimes leads to severe complications like cerebral edema or cardiac failure. A precocious diuretic treatment may prevent those complications