Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease caused by an absolute or relative insulin insufficiency. Patients with diabetes are hospi-talised more often, with more complications and protractions, compared to non-diabetics.
Many patients also suffer from various degrees of malnutrition, which is in itself a serious risk factor for many complications. This means that many diabetics will require some form of nutritional support.
Due to high prevalence of diabetes and many comorbidities accompanying it, doctors from essentially all fields can expect to work with diabetic patients. Even so, there is still much that is unclear about how to approach nutritional support, especially glycaemia compensation; there is a lack of recommendations based on wider studies.
The main risk factor for diabetic complications is hyperglycaemia. It can be controlled by various measures, from regimen changes, to insulin therapy.
The type of nutritional support is important as well. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of possible problems with nutritional support in diabetics and suggest possible solutions.
Recommendations listed here are partly based on available clinical studies and on empirical experience of the author's workplace.