ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess the effectiveness of glyburide in preventing complications of gestational diabetes in neonates as compared to insulin. Materials and Methods: Information from birth register, maternal and neonatal records were obtained. Five hundred and seventy-seven gestational diabetics with moderate hyperglycemia i.e., with highest fasting plasma glucose value of ≤130 mg/dl and/or highest post-prandial value of ≤250 mg/dl treated with insulin or glyburide were included from a cohort of 769 women needing additional therapy to initial diet therapy during a 5-year period. Thus neonatal outcomes of 303 women treated with insulin and 274 women treated with glyburide were compared. Results: Baseline plasma glucose levels in the group treated with insulin were higher. The mean birth weight (SD) of the neonates in women treated with insulin was 3021.3 g (604.19) as compared to 3104.6 g (499.35, P = 0.07) in the group treated with glyburide. Neonatal outcomes such as hypoglycemia (4.9%, 3.6%, P = 0.44), hypocalcemia (1.3%, 0.7%, P = 0.48), polycythemia (1.7%, 0.7%, P = 0.31), macrosomia (11.6%, 8.7%, P = 0.26), congenital anomalies (2.1%, 2.3%, P = 0.87), birth trauma (1.4%, 1.2%, P = 0.79) were similar in both groups. Neonates of women treated with insulin were more likely to have hyperbilirubinemia (11.5%, 6.5%, P = 0.03). Conclusion: Neonatal outcomes of women treated with glyburide were comparable to those in women treated with insulin. More number of neonates of mothers treated with insulin had hyperbilirubinemia compared to neonates of mothers treated with glyburide (11.5%, 6.5% P = 0.03).