Diabetes and sepsis outcomes – it is not all bad news

Patients with diabetes mellitus have an increased risk of developing infections and sepsis. In this issue of Critical Care Esper and colleagues report on a large survey, involving 12.5 million sepsis cases, that examined the impact of pre-existing diabetes on organ dysfunction during sepsis. Their main conclusion was that diabetes patients, relative to non-diabetics, were less likely to develop respiratory failure and more likely to develop renal failure during the course of sepsis.