Occurrence of hypoglycemia in patients with benzodiazepines poisoning: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Benzodiazepine (BZD) poisoning is a common medical condition often accompanied by respiratory arrest, aspiration pneumonitis, and may rarely result in death. Although it is not studied well, hypoglycemia is a real and life-threatening condition that may occur in BZD poisoning. Thus, the present study was shown to determine the prevalence of hypoglycemia among patients with BZD poisoning compared to toxicity with other drugs. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, patients with drug-induced poisoning referred to Vasei hospital, Sabzevar, eastern Iran, were registered and their blood glucose levels at presentation were collected during 2019. RESULTS: Overall, 300 poisoned patients were evaluated (17% with BZD poisoning). The prevalence of hypoglycemia was significantly higher in patients with BZD poisoning (11.8% vs. 2.8%, p = 0.004), especially in males (P = 0.016), aged >30 years old (p = 0.006). However, the prevalence of hypoglycemia was higher in patients with GCS<10 (p = 0.005) and in patients referred later than 1 h to a medical center (p = 0.015). CONCLUSION: Results were show that hypoglycemia is a frequent complication of BZD poisoning and should be considered in the initial evaluation of patients referred to the emergency department with this medical condition.