title: Riding out a diabetic emergency.
abstract: Acute complications of diabetes are like a runaway roller coaster. Diabetes or its treatment can rocket your patient's blood glucose level to dizzying heights or plunge it to life-threatening lows. Hypoglycemia, the most common endocrine emergency, typically occurs in a known diabetic patient whose therapy with insulin or oral diabetes agents goes awry. At the opposite extreme, soaring blood glucose levels mark the acute conditions diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic state (HHNS). These complications may send the patient to the emergency department (ED) before he even knows he has diabetes. In this article, I'll explain how these problems develop and spell out nursing measures to get your patient back on track.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Konick-McMahan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications*; D016883:Diabetic Ketoacidosis / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing*; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006944:Hyperglycemic Hyperosmolar Nonketotic Coma / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing*; D007003:Hypoglycemia / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing*; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose