Behavior of diabetic ketoacidosis in an Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Introduction: diabetes mellitus is a health problem, having an impact on all systems and which can trigger episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis. Objective: to characterize clinically and epidemiologically the patients with diabetic ketoacidosis admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Methods: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in patients diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis. The target group comprised 37 patients; all of them were included in the study. The variables were processed in the statistical package SPSS version 21 and descriptive statistical methods were applied. Results: patients between 31 and 40 years of age (37,84 %) and female gender (64,86 %) predominated, with an average age of 34,5 ± 5.71 years; 100 % of the patients presented dry mucous membranes, polypnea and tachycardia. Pneumonia (64,86 %) and urinary tract infection (54,05 %) prevailed as triggering causes. Shock was the main complication related to diabetes mellitus (27,03 %). Patients with moderate ketoacidosis were the majority (51,35 %). Conclusions: diabetic patients, between the second and third decade of life, and mostly female gender are prone to suffer from diabetic ketoacidosis. Clinically they manifest with dryness of the mucous membranes, polypnea and tachycardia mainly. Pneumonia and urinary tract infections are frequent triggering factors, shock is the main complication; patients with moderate ketoacidosis represented the greater numbers.

Keywords

• cetoacidosis diabética
• cetosis
• diabetes mellitus
• unidades de cuidados intensivos