Nutrition support and diabetes mellitus: How to manage?

At home as in the hospital, the diabetic patients are at high risk of malnutrition. In patients with hyperglycemia in artificial nutrition, the primary objective is to to cover their protein needs and their caloric needs and to optimize accordingly the antidiabetic treatment. Insulin therapy is the treatment of choice. The use of low glycaemic index is probably better, especially for oral supplementation. An equivalent parenteral carbohydrate intake has a hyperglycaemic effect more important than with the oral or enteral way. The management of hyperglycemia in artificial nutrition requires defining glycemic goals, tailored to the patient, to the type and the sequences of artificial nutrition, establishing patterns of insulin therapy and providing accurate adaptation rules. Above the basal requirement, insulin therapy sufficient to meet caloric exposure must be prescribed appropriate in timing with the artificial nutrition. The use of sliding scale as monotherapy is ineffective. This management requires forming the nurse team. The acute phase has passed, the disease stabilized, it is sometimes possible to introduce oral antidiabetic drugs and stop insulin. In this case, we apply the same prescription rules to these drugs as for the patient fed orally. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.