Multicentre Randomized Trial Assessing the Impact of Maintaining 2 Blood Glucose Levels on Hospital Mortality in Patients Admitted to the ICU (INSUREA STUDY)

During hospitalization in the intensive care unit (ICU), the occurrence of a blood glucose imbalance is frequent and associated with increased mortality. These observations have resulted in the hypothesis that intensive insulin therapy designed to control blood glucose would improve the prognosis of patients admitted into the ICU. In a prospective, randomized, single center study in a surgical ICU during which the majority of patients had undergone cardiac surgery, intensive insulin therapy with the objective to maintain glycemia below 110 mg/dl (6.1 mmol/L) provided a significant reduction in ICU mortality and hospital mortality compared to a group with a glycemic objective of 200 mg/dl.

In a recent published article, the beneficial effect of intensive insulin therapy seems less obvious in a randomized single center study in a medical ICU. One of the potential factors limiting the impact of a therapeutic strategy like this one is the absence of achieving strict glycemic control for all patients on intensive insulin therapy. Additionally, the implementation of such a therapeutic strategy results in an increased risk of hypoglycemia, the consequences of which on morbidity remain unclear.

The aim of our study is to determine, in a mixed population of medical and surgical patients admitted to the ICU, requiring artificial ventilation with a expected duration above 48 hours, the impact of effective strict glycemic control (<6,1 mmol/l) compared to a conventional glycemic control (<11mmol/l) on hospital mortality.