Occurrence of hypoglycemia in patients with benzodiazepines poisoning: A cross-sectional study

Davood Soroosh; Zakaria Zakariaei; Hossein Azadeh; Rabeeh Tabaripour; Elham Sadat Banimostafavi

doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2021.102772

Occurrence of hypoglycemia in patients with benzodiazepines poisoning: A cross-sectional study

Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2021 Sep 3:69:102772. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2021.102772. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Davood Soroosh¹, Zakaria Zakariaei^{2

3}, Hossein Azadeh³, Rabeeh Tabaripour³, Elham Sadat Banimostafavi^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, Sabzevar University of Medical Science, Sabzevar, Iran.
² Toxicology and Forensic Medicine Division, Orthopedic Research Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
³ Toxoplasmosis Research Center, Communicable Diseases Institute, Iranian National Registry Center for Lophomoniasis and Toxoplasmosis, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.

Abstract

Background: Benzodiazepine (BZD) poisoning is a common medical condition often accompanied by respiratory arrest, aspiration pneumonitis, and may rarely result in death. Although it is not studied well, hypoglycemia is a real and life-threatening condition that may occur in BZD poisoning. Thus, the present study was shown to determine the prevalence of hypoglycemia among patients with BZD poisoning compared to toxicity with other drugs.

Patients and methods: In this study, patients with drug-induced poisoning referred to Vasei hospital, Sabzevar, eastern Iran, were registered and their blood glucose levels at presentation were collected during 2019.

Results: Overall, 300 poisoned patients were evaluated (17% with BZD poisoning). The prevalence of hypoglycemia was significantly higher in patients with BZD poisoning (11.8% vs. 2.8%, p = 0.004), especially in males (P = 0.016), aged >30 years old (p = 0.006). However, the prevalence of hypoglycemia was higher in patients with GCS<10 (p = 0.005) and in patients referred later than 1 h to a medical center (p = 0.015).

Conclusion: Results were show that hypoglycemia is a frequent complication of BZD poisoning and should be considered in the initial evaluation of patients referred to the emergency department with this medical condition.

Keywords: Benzodiazepine; Emergency department; Hypoglycemia; Poisoning.