• Katharina Bannier, Michael Lichtenauer, Marcus Franz, Michael Fritzenwanger, Bjoern Kabisch, Hans-Reiner Figulla, Ruediger Pfeifer, and Christian Jung.
• Friedrich-Schiller-University, Clinic of Internal Medicine I, Jena, Germany.
• J. Diabetes Complicat. 2015 Nov 1; 29 (8): 1130-5.

PurposeDiabetes mellitus represents an increasing problem for patients and health care systems worldwide. We sought to investigate the effect of diabetes and its associated comorbidities on long-term survival and quality of life following an admission to a medical intensive care unit (ICU).MethodsA total of 6662 consecutive patients admitted to ICU between 2004 and 2009 were included (patients with diabetes n=796, non-diabetic patients n=5866). The primary endpoint of the study was death of any cause. Data on mortality was collected upon review of medical records or phone interviews. Moreover, a questionnaire was sent to 500 randomly selected patients addressing Health related Quality of Life (HrQoL) after ICU treatment.ResultsOverall mortality did not differ significantly between diabetic and non-diabetic patients after ICU treatment (mean follow-up time: 490 days). For a subgroup of patients already exhibiting comorbidities associated with diabetes, the mortality rate was significantly higher (p=0.022). Regarding quality of life, no differences were found between groups.ConclusionsDiabetes was not associated with increased mortality or reduced quality of life in a general population of medical ICU patients. However, once comorbidities associated with diabetes occurred, the survival rate of patients with comorbidities associated with hyperglycemia was significantly reduced.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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