Management of Hyperglycemic Crises in Patients With Diabetes

Abstract

Treatment of patients with DKA and HHS uses significant health care resources, which increases health care costs. In 1983, the cost of hospitalization for DKA in Rhode Island for 1 year was estimated to be $225 million (2). It was recently reported that treatment of DKA episodes represents more than one of every four health care dollars spent on direct medical care for adult patients with type 1 diabetes and for one of every two dollars in those patients experiencing multiple episodes of ketoacidosis (7). Based on an annual average of ∼100,000 hospitalizations for DKA in the U.S. (4) and estimated annual mean medical care charges of ∼$13,000 per patient experiencing a DKA episode (7), the annual hospital cost for patients with DKA may exceed $1 billion per year.