Early vs late oral nutrition in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis admitted to a medical intensive care unit

Table 1 Baseline characteristics

	Entire cohort	Early nutrition	Late nutrition	P value
n	128	67	61
Age, mean (yr)	47.3 (SD = 17.7)	45.7 (SD = 18.4)	49.1 (SD = 16.9)	0.1970
Race (n)
African American	25% (32)	23.9% (16)	26.2% (16)	0.1950
Caucasian	65% (83)	67.2% (45)	62.3% (38)
Other	10% (13)	8.9% (7)	11.5% (7)
Female sex (n)	50.8% (65)	37.3% (25)	62% (38)	0.0047
DKA severity
Mild	51	33	28	0.8997
Moderate	36	19	17
Severe	31	15	16
Mean APACHE IV Mortality	9.9 (SD = 18.5)	6.0 (SD = 12.7)	14.1 (SD = 22.5)	0.1170
Mean APACHE IV LOS	4.6 (SD = 1.8)	4.2 (SD = 1.5)	4.8 (SD = 2.0)	0.8400

APACHE: Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation; LOS: Length of stay; SD: Standard deviation.

Table 2 Outcomes

	Early nutrition	Late nutrition	P value
Mean time to AG normalization (h)	11.7 (SD = 15.6)	20.0 (SD = 40.7)	0.1642
Mean time to DKA resolution (h)	15.4 (SD = 18.8)	19.6 (SD = 32.6)	0.1410
Mortality at 28 d (n)	2.34% (3)	0.78 (1)	0.6300
Mortality at 90 d (n)	2.34% (3)	1.57% (2)	1.0000
Hospital LOS (d)	4.16 (SD = 2.63)	8.35 (SD = 8.85)	0.0001
ICU LOS (d)	1.38 (SD = 1.17)	3.12 (SD = 4.58)	0.0002
Mean number of complication occurrences:
Hypoglycemia	0.97 (SD = 1.49)	1.54 (SD = 2.47)	0.1804
Hypokalemia	1.18 (SD = 1.4)	2.21 (SD = 2.1)	0.0022
Hyperkalemia	0.43 (SD = 0.72)	0.56 (SD = 0.89)	0.3706
Hypophosphatemia	0.73 (SD = 0.9)	1.67 (SD = 2.4)	0.0052
Severe acidosis	0.04 (SD = 0.21)	0.20 (SD = 0.73)	0.1356

DKA: Diabetic ketoacidosis; ICU: Intensive care unit; LOS: Length of stay; SD: Standard deviation.