Résumé
Aims: At our Trust, all severe inpatient hypoglycaemic episodes in individuals with diabetes (defined as a hypoglycaemic episode requiring injectable treatment) are reported to NaDIA-Harms (National Diabetes Inpatient Audit). We conducted a detailed review of the care of all these events to improve patient safety. In this study, we assessed the risk of 12-month mortality following an episode of severe inpatient hypoglycaemia. Method(s): Reportable NaDIA harms of patients admitted during the period 2018-2022 were recorded into a dataset. Applicable patient records were reviewed at 12 months following the event to see how many patients were deceased and details of comorbidities at the time of the severe hypoglycaemic episode were collected. Result(s): To date, of 107 inpatients who experienced a severe hypoglycaemic episode 55% were deceased within 12 months. In patients admitted during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic recorded as year April 2020/March 2021, 80% of patients who had a NaDIA hypoglycaemic event died within 12 months. Conclusion(s): Mortality rate following an episode of inpatient hypoglycaemia appears to be several-fold higher than previous reported rates of 4.45%-22.1% for community-dwelling individuals who experience a severe hypoglycaemic event. This maybe partially explained by the increased frailty, polypharmacy and multimorbidity among this cohort, but there is evidence linking hypoglycaemia with cardiovascular mortality. Although no causality between severe inpatient hypoglycaemia and death can be inferred from this study because of the observational nature, it does highlight the importance preventing inpatient episodes of hypoglycaemia through effective monitoring and proactive treatment modification.