Insulin Pumps Good Alternative to Daily Injections

Insulin pumps help patients with advanced type 2 diabetes meet their glycemic control goals more effectively than multiple daily injections, according to a new trial.

In order to resolve previous inconclusive results on the efficacy of pump treatment, researchers conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 495 patients with type 2 diabetes and poor glycemic control despite multiple daily insulin injections at 36 hospitals and care centers in Canada, Europe, Israel, South Africa, and the United States. 
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After a 2-month run-in period, 331 participants with glycated hemoglobin of 8% to 12% were randomly assigned to either pump treatment or continued daily insulin injections.

After 6 months, mean glycated hemoglobin had decreased by 1.1% in the 168 participants assigned to pump treatment and by 0.4% in the injection group. Average daily insulin dose was 97 units in the pump group and 122 units in the injection group.

“In patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes despite using multiple daily injections of insulin, pump treatment can be considered as a safe and valuable treatment option,” researchers concluded.

–Michael Potts

Reznik Y, Cohen O, Aronson R, et al. Insulin pump treatment compared with multiple daily injections for treatment of type 2 diabetes (OpT2mise): a randomised open-label controlled trial. Lancet. 2014 July 3. [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61037-0