Relationship between admission blood glucose level and prognosis in elderly patients without previously known diabetes who undergo emergency non-cardiac surgery.

Elevated blood glucose levels on admission are important as a marker for adverse events in patients who undergo surgery. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between admission glucose level and adverse outcome during the 30-day follow-up period in elderly patients without previously known diabetes who undergo emergency non-cardiac surgery. The primary and secondary end points were all-cause and major adverse cardiac event (MACE) mortalities, respectively, during the 30-day postoperative follow-up period. Higher 30-day all-cause (24.1 %) and MACE (13.7 %) mortalities were observed in patients with an admission glucose ≥ 11.1 mmol/L than in patients with admission glucose <11.1 mmol/L (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that an higher admission blood glucose level is an independent predictor for the development of the 30-day all-cause mortality [odds ratio (OR), 1.91; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.746-2.082; p < 0.001) and cardiac mortality (OR 1.97, 95 % CI 1.774-2.191; p < 0.001] after adjusting for age, gender, body mass index, comorbidities, and medication before admission. Kaplan-Meier event-free survival curves demonstrate that an admission blood glucose level ≥ 11.1 mmol/L has worse event-free survival than an admission blood glucose level <11.1 mmol/L.