Inpatient management of diabetes mellitus.

Inpatient hyperglycemia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The length of hospital stay and cost of care is higher for patients with diabetes than for others. Current evidence suggests that tight control of hyperglycemia in critically ill hospitalized patients with diabetes or acute hyperglycemia has been shown to reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality. In view of risk of severe hypoglycemia with near normal blood glucose target, latest consensus is to adopt a less stringent target of 140-180 mg/dl. The development of insulin analogs with more physiologic time-action profiles, improved insulin delivery systems, and standardized protocols for subcutaneous insulin administration and intravenous insulin infusion have improved the safety and convenience of insulin therapy for treating inpatients.