If you deal with diabetes or hypoglycemia, can you keep your blood sugar within a normal range? Researchers found that people dealing with either high (hyperglycemia) or low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) get better results from total joint surgery if their blood sugar levels are controlled. A study published in 2009 reviewed 17 years of total joint surgery patients (over 1 million patients) looking at whether good control of blood sugar helped decrease complications. Their conclusion: “regardless of diabetes type, patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus exhibited significantly increased odds of surgical and systemic complications, higher mortality and increased length of stay during the index hospitalization following the lower extremity total joint arthroplasty.” (Interpretation, uncontrolled blood sugars increase a person’s risk of a longer stay in the hospital, and complications which include wound infection, stroke, postoperative bleeding, and even death.) This information can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19571084. Talk with your doctor to make a plan for better control of your blood sugar.
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