Prognostic Value of Serum Glucose Level in Critically Ill Septic Patients on Admission to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is one of the major causes of admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), as well as a primary cause of poor outcomes. Glycemic variation may occur because of sepsis resulting in either hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. Measuring the random blood glucose (RBG) level of patients presenting with sepsis in PICU is an easy way to assess their prognosis. OBJECTIVES: A prospective study was done from February 2023 to June 2023 to evaluate the relation between the outcome of pediatric septic patients and blood glucose level upon PICU admission. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred three children diagnosed with sepsis underwent clinical assessment upon admission to the PICU and initial labs including blood glucose levels were done. Pediatric Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (pSOFA) was calculated for every patient. The outcome of sepsis including length of stay, review of body systems, and mortality was documented. RESULTS: Hypoglycemic patients had the highest percentage of non-survivors (20.4%). They had a higher pSOFA score with a median of 11 (interquartile range—IQR 7–15), shorter PICU stay with a median of 2 (IQR 1–6) days, lower RBG with a median of 95 (45–120), a higher percentage of ventilation (55.1%), and a higher percentage of inotropic support (87.8%) with statistical significance with p-value (< 0.001, < 0.001, 0.001, < 0.001, 0.002), respectively. CONCLUSION: Critically ill patients with abnormal random blood sugar (RBS) had a higher possibility of non-survival particularly those with hypoglycemia. Accordingly, RBS measurement is a rapid and cheap method that could be used in any emergency and as an early indicator to detect outcome. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Mohamed AO, Abd El-Megied MA, Hosni YA. Prognostic Value of Serum Glucose Level in Critically Ill Septic Patients on Admission to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Indian J Crit Care Med 2023;27(10):754–758.