Hyperglycemia and Length of Stay in Patients Hospitalized for Bone Marrow Transplantation
- Rajesh Garg, MD1,
- Himanshu Bhutani, MD1,
- Edward Alyea, MD2 and
- Merri Pendergrass, MD, PHD1
- 1Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
- 2Division of Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Rajesh Garg, MD, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 221 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: rgarg{at}partners.org
Hyperglycemia has been shown to be associated with increased mortality and morbidity and prolonged hospital stay in inpatients (1–4). This association has been established for several conditions including cardiac surgery, acute myocardial infarction, stroke, trauma, burns, pneumonia, and critical illness (5–10). Good glycemic control has been shown to decrease length of stay (LOS) and save hospitalization costs (11,12). In randomized controlled trials of critically ill patients, the beneficial effects of good glycemic control were most prominent in those with longer hospitalizations and no previous history of diabetes (13).
Patients hospitalized for bone marrow transplantation (BMT) tend to be critically ill and have prolonged hospital stays. To our knowledge, there have been no previous reports that describe the relationship between blood glucose levels and LOS in patients admitted for BMT. This study was performed to establish the relationship between blood glucose and LOS in nondiabetic patients electively admitted for BMT.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—
A retrospective review of electronic medical records of patients electively admitted to the BMT unit between 1 January 2006 and 30 June 2006 was conducted. Patients were identified from the hospital admission/discharge data. Medical records were accessed to collect data on age, sex, date of admission, date of discharge, diabetes status, renal status, all available laboratory blood glucose values, steroid use, immunuosuppresssive …
