Research News

Insulin saves children’s lives

Children admitted to intensive care units often have increased blood sugar levels. This has long been considered to be a favourable reaction to illness and stress. Supposedly, the body produces the sugar to use it as fuel for the brain and the immune system. However, it has become apparent that high blood sugar levels can also have harmful effects. They increase the risk of infections, damage to organs and death.

Professor Greet Van den Berghe’s research team monitored 700 critically ill young patients at the Department for Intensive Medicine of the University Hospitals, Campus Gasthuisberg. The patients either received an insulin treatment to keep their blood sugar level at a normal value for their age, or the increased blood sugar levels were left as they were. It appeared that the children who received the intensive insulin treatment were twice as likely to survive, despite their blood sugar levels sometimes dropping below the normal value. They also suffered fewer infections, less damage to the heart and they were allowed to leave intensive care slightly earlier. A follow-up investigation is intended to discover what the effects of the intensive insulin treatment are in the long term.