Insulin Pumps Disappoint in Real World Practice

Nearly 40% of adult users at one tertiary care center averaged over 8.5% HbA1c.

BOSTON -- Insulin pumps may improve but often don't control glycemic levels in type 1 diabetes, a retrospective U.K. study showed.

Fully 38% of patients maintained a hemoglobin A1c over 8.5% on continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion and 11% were over 10% A1c, Lalantha Leelarathna, MBBS, PhD, of the University of Manchester, England, and colleagues found.

That was despite an average 0.6% A1c improvement after staring pump therapy, with greater declines in patients starting at higher levels, they reported here at the American Diabetes Association meeting.


To see such high rates of uncontrolled HbA1c levels in adults was surprising, commented Clifford J. Bailey, PhD, of Aston University in Birmingham, England.

Read more:   http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ADA/52009?

So with all the money spent developing these things they are still not as effective at controlling T1 HbA1cs as a low carb diet combined with patients calculating their own basal and bolus insulin themselves? Aren't pumps just given to those with bad control anyway? So there should be a greater margin of improvement in this group of patients because there is more scope for improvement.

Or has my addled T2 brain missed something?

The criteria for getting a NHS pump is the inability to get good safe control with MDI. I find it ironic so many low carb antis at the flog have been pump users, many boasting of their high carb intake. More than a few have been made mods over the years, no names no pack drill, you know who they are. Clearly these people are costing the NHS a small fortune. I wonder if they would go low carb if they lost their funding for pumps etc. Low carbers save the NHS millions every year, not that the Likes of DUK gives a monkeys because we also cost their pay masters big pharma lot of lost revenue. One thing Graham's post showed, even with a pump, safe BG will not be obtained for many without the correct diet.

How those antis must hate seeing all the low carb good news, just about the only good news at the flog, it was ever thus. BTW I see many low carbers appear to have walked from the flog. Banned or tired of all the post deletions. Soon the flog management will get what they have wanted for years, almost everyone dependent on meds or more meds than necessary, and a tie up with big pharma. Those low carbers have cost the flog a lot of money over the years, God bless them.