Is there an optimum level of intra-operative glucose control?

Abstract

Trauma, surgery and anaesthesia are known triggers of the stress response and this has been shown in many studies to present as a hyperglycaemic response. These elevated blood glucose levels have, in turn, been linked in many studies to increased mortality and morbidity in hospitalised patients and most certainly in patients undergoing surgical procedures of one type or another. Poor perioperative clinical outcomes are true of both diabetic and non-diabetic patients, except that they occur to varying extents.