Abstract
It has long been appreciated that critically ill patients are complicated by persistent hyperglycemia despite high-dose administration of insulin. While this so-called insulin resistance could be a marker of severity in critically ill patients, many studies suggest that blood glucose control contributes to the reduction of modality in patients with central nervous or myocardial diseases. A large-scale clinical trial for post-surgical patients has demonstrated that intensive insulin therapy to strictly regulate blood glucose level improved the modality and mortality while recent study showed that this therapy could be applied to medical ICU patients staying over 3 days. This review has focused on the beneficial effects of strict blood glucose control on systemic inflammatory response and vital organ function, and thereby has discussed its implications and substantial mechanisms to improve the outcome of such critically ill patients.
