Published in:
Open Access 01-12-2010 | Case report
Symptomatic cerebral oedema during treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis: effect of adjuvant octreotide infusion
Published in: Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome | Issue 1/2010
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Introduction
A potentially lethal complication of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children is brain oedema, whether caused by DKA itself or by the therapeutic infusion of insulin and fluids.
Case presentation
A 10-year old previously healthy boy with DKA became unconscious and apnoeic due to cerebral oedema (confirmed by abnormal EEG and CT-scan) during treatment with intravenous fluids (36 ml/h) and insulin (0.1 units/kg/h). He was intubated and artificially ventilated, without impact on EEG and CT-scan. Subsequently, adjuvant infusion of octreotide was applied (3.5 μg/kg/h), suppressing growth hormone (GH) and IGF-1 production and necessitating the insulin dose to be reduced to 0.05 - 0.025 units/kg/h. The brain oedema improved and the boy made a full recovery.
Conclusion
Co-therapy with octreotide was associated with a favourable outcome in the present patient with DKA and cerebral oedema. Whether this could be ascribed to the effects of octreotide on the insulin requirement or on the GH/IGF-axis remains to be elucidated.