• James Tebby, Fiona Lecky, Antoinette Edwards, Tom Jenks, Omar Bouamra, Rozalia Dimitriou, and Peter V Giannoudis.
• Academic Department of Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Leeds, Clarendon Wing, Floor A, Great George Street, Leeds General Infirmary, LS1 3EX Leeds, UK. pgiannoudi@aol.com.
• Bmc Med. 2014 Jul 16; 12: 111.

BackgroundThe impact of diabetes mellitus in patients with multiple system injuries remains obscure. This study was designed to increase knowledge of outcomes of polytrauma in patients who have diabetes mellitus.MethodsData from the Trauma Audit and Research Network was used to identify patients who had suffered polytrauma during 2003 to 2011. These patients were filtered to those with known outcomes, then separated into those with diabetes, those known to have other co-morbidities but not diabetes and those known not to have any co-morbidities or diabetes. The data were analyzed to establish if patients with diabetes had differing outcomes associated with their diabetes versus the other groups.ResultsIn total, 222 patients had diabetes, 2,558 had no past medical co-morbidities (PMC), 2,709 had PMC but no diabetes. The diabetic group of patients was found to be older than the other groups (P <0.05). A higher mortality rate was found in the diabetic group compared to the non-PMC group (32.4% versus 12.9%), P <0.05). Rates of many complications including renal failure, myocardial infarction, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis were all found to be higher in the diabetic group.ConclusionsClose monitoring of diabetic patients may result in improved outcomes. Tighter glycemic control and earlier intervention for complications may reduce mortality and morbidity.

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