Benefits and Risks of Intensive Glucose Control in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized…

Meta-analysisNursing in critical care· Sep 2026

Benefits and Risks of Intensive Glucose Control in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Yuanjie Duan, Juan Liu, Shiyu Lin … Lemei Zhu

Pulmonology & Critical CareMeta-analysisTreatmentQ1IF 3.3

Intensive glucose control significantly increases severe hypoglycemia risk in adults.

Benefits and Risks of Intensive Glucose Control in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Yuanjie Duan … Lemei Zhu

Nursing in critical care · Sep 2026

Background

Hyperglycaemia is common among intensive care unit (intensive care unit) patients and is associated with increased mortality.

Purpose

To compare the benefits and risks of intensive versus liberal glucose control in intensive care unit patients.

Methods

A Meta analysis of randomized controlled trials.

n = 4011 patients

Results

intensive glucose control meant a higher risk of severe low blood sugar in adults

RR by subgroup · 95% CI

More results

The RR of all-cause mortality after intensive and liberal glucose control was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.93-1.05) in adults.

Comparable findings were observed for all-cause mortality in children.

However, intensive glucose control had a statistically lower risk of infection in both children (RR 0.83; 95% CI 0.70-0.98) and adults (RR 0.78; 95% CI 0.63-0.97).

More results

In the subgroup analysis of adults, a lower risk of infection was observed in all surgical groups, but not in the medical group.

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Intensive and liberal glucose control had similar effects on all-cause mortality in adults and children, though paediatric data are limited and should be interpreted cautiously.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

Intensive glucose control reduced infection risk, especially in surgical ICUs, but increased the risk of severe hypoglycaemia.

Benefits and Risks of Intensive Glucose Control in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

Benefits and Risks of Intensive Glucose Control in Intensive Care Units: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

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