Background: Studies on stress hyperglycemia in trauma patients have largely ignored diabetes, a potential confounder. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between diabetes and outcome in trauma patients.
Methods: Data were obtained from the National Trauma Data Bank (version 4.0). The primary outcome measures were mortality and infections. Age, injury severity, and comorbidities were analyzed as independent variables using logistic regression.
Results: A total of 343,250 patients were analyzed, of whom 2.7% were diabetic. On multivariate analysis, insulin-dependent diabetes was an independent although weak predictor of infectious morbidity and intensive care unit length of stay. However, diabetes was not associated with mortality or hospital length of stay. Age and injury severity were the main predictors for all outcome measures.
Conclusions: Diabetes was an independent, although weak, risk factor for infectious complications in trauma patients. Age and injury severity were the most important predictors of outcome.