Cutaneous complications of insulin therapy in patients with Type1 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Background: Common complications of subcutaneous insulin injection include lipoatrophy and lipohypertrophy which may lead to erratic absorption of the insulin with the potential for poor glycemic control and unpredictable hypoglycemia. Other cutaneous complications are local and systemic insulin allergy.
Patients and methods: The study included 150 patients with type1 diabetes mellitus attending thediabetic clinic of Children Welfare Teaching Hospital who were assessed for cutaneous
omplications of insulin therapy especially at the sites of the injections. Data collected evaluated using chi square and Pvalue.
Results: Out of 150 patients, the male to female ratio was 1:1.3, with mean age of 11.34 years ± 4.461SD.The cutaneous complications of insulin therapy present in (56.7%) of patients, (94.1%) of them had lipohypertrophy and (5.9%) had allergy to insulin while lipoatrophy and other cutaneous complications were not reported.The cutaneous complications were associated with increase in the incidence of other complications of diabetes mellitus (72.9%).Most of cutaneous complications developed in the upper arms (69.4%) especially in those who did not change the sites and those with wrong technique of injections.
Conclusions: The cutaneous complications developed because of poor education about the proper use of insulin or failure to follow the instructions, as the school achievement of the person who injects the insulin for the patient had no role. So I recommend proper education about the sites and the technique of insulin injection and the maintenance of this education.