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Diabetic coma | |
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Universal blue circle symbol for diabetes.[1] | |
Specialty | Endocrinology |
Diabetic coma is a life-threatening but reversible form of coma found in people with diabetes mellitus.[2]
Three different types of diabetic coma are identified:[3]
In most medical contexts, the term diabetic coma refers to the diagnostical dilemma posed when a physician is confronted with an unconscious patient about whom nothing is known except that they have diabetes. An example might be a physician working in an emergency department who receives an unconscious patient wearing a medical identification tag saying DIABETIC. Paramedics may be called to rescue an unconscious person by friends who identify them as diabetic. Brief descriptions of the three major conditions are followed by a discussion of the diagnostic process used to distinguish among them, as well as a few other conditions which must be considered.
An estimated 2 to 15 percent of people with diabetes will have at least one episode of diabetic coma in their lifetimes as a result of severe hypoglycemia.[4]