Hypoglycemia in patients with renal failure

Of a total of 1545 admissions of end stage renal failure (ESRD) patients, fifty-six (3.6%) were admitted during a ten-year period with hypoglycemia. Thirty-eight of them were diabetic while the others were nondiabetic patients. The most common etiology found to be drug-induced hypoglycemia in 26 (46%) patients. In 22 (39%) cases, sepsis was the contributing cause of hypoglycemia. Severe malnutrition caused 7% of hypoglycemic episodes. Of the patients, 18 (32%) with ESRD eventually died, none of them were from the drug induced group. However, mortality rate in the sepsis induced hypoglycemia group was 66%, and of the malnutrition group 17% of the deaths. Thus, hypoglycemia is frequent in ESRD patients, and is fatal if associated with either sepsis or malnutrition.