Oral Glucouse

[JPINFV]

what are the odds of coming across a patient who is a non diabetic with hypoglycemia? How would this occur?

An insulinoma would be another cause.

 

[AnthonyTheEmt]

A few questions:


If I administer it to a patient (lets say he fainted) because he is a diabetic and I suspect hypoglycemia, but I suspected wrong...would that do any damage?

Yes it would potentially do damage. If the patient has fainted, you sure as hell better not give oral glucose because they cannot protect their airway.

 

[JPINFV]

Yes it would potentially do damage. If the patient has fainted, you sure as hell better not give oral glucose because they cannot protect their airway.

Of course if the patient is significantly altered because of hypoglycemia, then you have the same airway issue. All other things being equal, oral glucose isn't any more harmful if given to someone who isn't hypoglycemic than it is to give to someone who is hypoglycemic.

 

[Melclin]

The amount of glucose in a 15g tube is minuscule.

About two mouth fulls of apple juice. I'd be willing to bet you could give 125mls of apple juice to pretty much anyone and it wouldn't hurt them. Assuming they can swallow the stuff.

 

[Brandon O]

I have found a reference which swears 15g of oral glucose should raise the circulating BGL by 50 mg/dL (that's about 2.8 mmol/dL for you furriners) within about 15 minutes, but I have never found that to be remotely true.

 

[heatherabel3]

The amount of glucose given will raise each persons BGL differently. If you give my kid a full tube of glucose your gonna send his sugar through the roof. The last time he needed it his BG was 22 and a tube and 15 mins later he was at 338. Of course, we deal with the high because its better than a coma but it makes him feel really bad so we never dose an entire tube if we can help it. So yeah, different people...different responses.

 

[VirginiaEMT]

why is tia\cva a contra indication for glucose. I know it is for D50 but never heard the glucose thing before.

Dextrose is a "hypertonic" solution that can cause an increase in the pressure in the cranium by causing more fluid to accumulate in the space occupied by the brain. This is a elementary explanation but I would suggest you google the words isotonic, hypotonic, and hypertonic solutions. That will give you a better idea.