Insulin pumps have been invented and used for more than 20 years, and many people with type 1 diabetes have switched to insulin pumps instead of daily insulin injections, but new research shows that insulin pumps are also a safe and effective treatment option for people with insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes.
This is the first long-term study to compare the safety and efficacy of insulin pumps versus several daily injections of insulin for people with type 2 diabetes, and it found that insulin pumps were as effective as injections in lowering patients’ average blood glucose concentrations. control their blood glucose levels.
Insulin pumps are about the size of a pager, are worn on the patient’s skin day and night, and provide programmed and continuous delivery of insulin.
This was a multi-center study in which 132 patients over the age of 34 with type 2 diabetes were randomly assigned to two different treatment groups, one with several daily insulin injections and the other with a continuous insulin pump, both of which received treatment for 6 months.
After 3 months, both groups showed similar improvements in blood glucose concentrations, but in general, 9/10 of the patients treated with insulin pumps preferred them because they found them convenient and easy to use and could be applied flexibly. The results of this study were published in the September issue of Diabetes Care by the American Diabetes Association.
Philip Raskin, MD, PhD, of Southwest Medical Center at the University of Texas at Dallas, said he believes patients treated with insulin pumps would have been better served if the study had been done at a single medical center rather than at multiple medical centers.
Dr. Raskin is a consultant for insulin pump manufacturer Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, which also sponsored the study.
I think an insulin pump may have some advantages over several daily injections of insulin in terms of blood sugar control, of course! Our patients also prefer insulin pumps.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is also now sponsoring a large multi-center clinical trial to study the effectiveness of insulin pumps for patients over 60 with type 2 diabetes.
Insulin pumps are not for everyone with diabetes Dr. Nathaniel Clark, spokesman for the American Diabetes Association (ADA), said that because 90 to 95 percent of people with diabetes are indicated for this treatment, insulin pump manufacturers offer a generous financial incentive to promote this insulin delivery system to people with type 2 diabetes, but he also added that insulin pumps may be very helpful for some people with type 2 diabetes to control their blood sugar.
For patients with type 2 diabetes who have unexplained hypoglycemia even with daily insulin injections, insulin pumps that deliver the desired amount of insulin can be used, but they are not the primary or final therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes, nor are they the primary or final therapy for patients with type 2 diabetes.
Both experts agree that patients should not take the liberty of switching from insulin injections to insulin pumps simply because of the simplicity and convenience of insulin helper therapy.
Dr. Raskin says that you have to do a lot of homework before you want to treat with an insulin pump; you have to pay attention to what you’re eating. And you have to check your blood sugar levels several times a day, because just because you’re not taking injections doesn’t mean you can forget diabetes exists.