Infections associated with diabetic-care devices.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

There are more than 463 million people living with diabetes with this number expected to increase to 700 million people by 2045. Diabetes is a risk factor for patients developing various comorbidities including, but not limited to, diabetic neuropathy, retinopathy, chronic kidney disease, vascular impediments, and infections. Due to the continuous invasiveness of monitoring and/or treatment of this disease, site for infections are elevated.

METHODS

Information was primarily gathered by employing various PubMed scholarly articles for real-world examples in addition to data extraction from supplementary manuscripts. Key search words employed were: diabetes, insulin site infection, lancing infections, insulin pump associated infections, and continuous glucose monitoring infections.

RESULTS

Diabetic care devices used for blood glucose monitoring and insulin administration are an integral part of the disease management and/or treatment in various settings including patient homes, assisted living facilities, community centers, and hospitals. These invasive devices leave a diabetic patient with a small open wound which may get infected or aid in blood borne pathogen transmission. Since diabetes itself has a morbidity and mortality burden, it is important to also study complications arising from the management of diabetes.

CONCLUSION

Although cases exist of infections, either by pathogen transmission or direct inoculation of the prick site, these are a very small percentage and thus should not undermine the confidence in diabetes management. This review highlights the instances of these infections and where they most often occur.