Question

The patient is a 78 year old woman who only had 20% kidney function. She also has diabetes and is prescribed insulin to help her blood sugar. Insulin is canceled out by the kidney action.
What type of dosage adjustment would you expect for this patient?
What problems would occur if the dosages are not adjusted?

Answer 1

I would suggest doubling the dosage of insulin so that it would have an effect on the woman.

If you did not adjust the dosage then glucose wouldn’t be able to get into the cells without insulin and this could cause an irregular or fast heartbeat, fatigue, pale skin, hypoglycemia, cardiac death, and cause ischemic cerebral damage.