Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Oct 15, 2021; 12(10): 1719-1730
Published online Oct 15, 2021. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v12.i10.1719
Glycemic targets in critically ill adults: A mini-review
Kay Choong See
Kay Choong See, Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore 119228, Singapore
Author contributions: See KC collected the data and wrote the paper; See KC read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: See KC has received honoraria from GE Healthcare and Medtronic, and has no other conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Kay Choong See, FCCP, FRCP, MBBS, MRCP, Doctor, Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, National University Hos-pital, 1E Kent Ridge Road, NUHS Tower Block Level 10, Singapore 119228, Singapore. mdcskc@nus.edu.sg
Received: April 3, 2021
Peer-review started: April 3, 2021
First decision: June 5, 2021
Revised: June 6, 2021
Accepted: September 3, 2021
Article in press: September 3, 2021
Published online: October 15, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: A lower glycemic target range (i.e., blood glucose 4.5-7.8 mmol/L) would be favored for patients without diabetes mellitus, or with traumatic brain injury, or who are postoperative and at risk of surgical site infection. Requirements for targeting a lower range and avoiding hypoglycemia would be availability of intensive glucose monitoring and management, strict adherence to glycemic control protocols, and strict adherence to timely glucose measurements. In contrast, a higher glycemic target range (i.e., blood glucose 7.8-10 mmol/L) would be favored as a default choice for medical-surgical patients and patients with diabetes mellitus.