Hypoglycemia treatment
Hypoglycemia occurs when the glucose level falls below the normal level. This is a very common side effect for people who have to control their sugar intake, for instance diabetic patients, and can have severe consequences on the subject if not treated immediately. There are many possible modes of treatment for hypoglycemia. The treatments should usually start at home or wherever the person is at the time of a hypoglycemia attack. The people with the patient should not wait for the doctors to bring the glucose level to normal level. Instead, they should try to fill up the lack of glucose and take other steps to treat the patient. This is known as pre-hospital care, which, in this case, comprises of the following steps:
1. Giving serum glucose or using Accucheck. This should be done before giving D50 to the patient. The treatment method is more common with patients who have lost their consciousness because of hypoglycemia or who are not mentally alert.
2. Conducting easy tests to check glucose level: Usually, people who are trained in advanced cardiac life system (ACLS) are able to conduct such tests.
3. Taking the person to the hospital: If the glucose tests indicate hypoglycemia, the patient must be taken to the hospital. The patient may not wish to be hospitalized – mainly because of the problems associated with moving. However, people should ignore the patient’s request since exact cause of the hypoglycemia can only be found by doctors.
After the patient is brought into the hospital, he or she is usually immediately moved to the Emergency Department. Here, Accucheck is used and also the amount of oxygen inhaled and exhaled is monitored. Intravenous (IV) access and ABCs are also performed. All these just form the starting examination of the patient. Afterwards, the patient is given glucose. This, in most cases, recovers the patient from hypoglycemia. The following points should be kept in mind to achieve the best results from the treatment:
1. Glucose must be given immediately. This is because all the organs of the body – including the brain – need glucose for energy. If glucose is absent, the neurons in the brain may die or suffer from significant damage. The patient may also be given a huge amount of glucose in this case since taking too much glucose will not risen the body glucose level significantly.
2. Accucheck should only be used if it can be used in less than a minute.
3. If the patient is diagnosed with hypoglycemia, the causes of this condition should then be found. The causes are usually changes in diet, changes in physical activity, changes in the type or amount of medications take, occurrence of a disease and occurrence of infection.
After the cause of hypoglycemia has been found for sure, the patient should visit specialists of infectious disease, toxiocology and endocrinology. If this is not possible, a person should seek consultation from a specialist of internal medicine.
Apart from glucose, the patient can also take other medications. The most of these are supplements of glucose which help in bringing up the body glucose level. Another medication is dextrose – more popularly known as “glucose-D”. This consists of monosaccharide which is used through the absorption by the intestine. After the absorption, the glucose-D is stored in the body tissues where it is then used by the body cells. If the glucose-D cannot be taken orally, it must be injected. The former method is certainly better since it cause the glucose level to rise quickly. Also, through oral intake, a smaller-sized dose may be taken in order to reduce the risks of toxicity.
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