Comparison of Glucose Loads and Blood Glucose Changes in Patients With and Without Diabetes Mellitus Undergoing Living Donor Liver Transplantation

Background and purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the quantitative amount of glucose load, which maintained the blood glucose levels between 100 and 180 mg/dL in patients with and without diabetes mellitus (DM) undergoing living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Methods and patients: The anesthesia records of 477 adult LDLT patients were reviewed retrospectively. The total amount of glucose loads and the changes in blood glucose between groups were compared by using Mann-Whitney U test. One-year patient survival between groups was compared with Pearson's χ² test. A P value of <.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Eighty patients diagnosed with DM, who were all type II except one, were placed in group 1 (G1); and 397 patients without DM were placed in group 2 (G2). Table 1 shows that G1 received significantly less glucose loads in comparison to G2, but all the measured blood glucose levels, except in the reperfusion phase, were significantly higher in G1 than in G2. Both groups received glucose loads of 0.342 ± 0.191 and 0.774 ± 0.191 mg/kg/min for G1 and G2, respectively. No difference in 1-year survival between groups was observed. Conclusion: Patients with DM required significantly lower glucose loads compared to patients without DM.