Profile of Diabetic Ketoacidosis at the National Diabetes Hospital in Tripoli, Libya, 2015

Diabetic ketoacidosis is a major acute metabolic complication of type I diabetes mellitus but may occur in type II diabetes during severe stressful conditions such as trauma, surgery, or infection. We retrospectively studied the profiles of 490 patients admitted with diabetic ketoacidosis to the National Diabetes Hospital in Tripoli, Libya, during 2015. Most of the patients (91.6%) had been admitted to the intensive care unit. The mean age was 35.9 ± 17.5 years standard deviation. Diabetic ketoacidosis was more common among young males with type I diabetes but it was also observed among persons with type II diabetes. The average duration of diabetes was 16.8 ± 8.2 years. The frequencies of patients admitted with mild, moderate or severe diabetic ketoacidosis were 49.8%, 32.7% and 17.8%, respectively. The most frequent causes of admission were insulin omission (21.8%), infection (20.2%), wrong dose (11%). The cause was not known for 29.8% of the patients. New cases of diabetes represented 9.4%. Diabetic ketoacidosis was more common among young males, and the rate increased with longer duration of the condition. Most of the patients (93.1%) were discharged in good health, and mortality was 0.6%.