Background and purpose: Hyperglycemia may worsen outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. We performed a systematic review to investigate the relation between admission hyperglycemia and outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Methods: We included cohort studies or clinical trials of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage admitted within 72 hours that documented admission glucose levels or the rate of hyperglycemia. Outcome had to be assessed prospectively after 3 or more months. The overall mean glucose level was calculated by weighting for the number of patients included in each study. To calculate the effect size, we pooled the ORs and 95% 95% CIs of poor clinical outcome in patients with or without hyperglycemia.
Results: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index, and the bibliographies of relevant studies. We included 17 studies totaling 4095 patients. The mean admission glucose level was 9.3 mmol/L (range, 7.4 to 10.9 mmol/L; 14 studies, 3373 patients) and the median proportion of patients with hyperglycemia was 69% (range, 29 to 100; 16 studies, 3995 patients; cutoff levels of hyperglycemia, 5.7 to 12.0 mmol/L). The pooled OR (8 studies, 2164 patients) for poor outcome associated with hyperglycemia was 3.1 (95% CI, 2.3 to 4.3). Cutoff points for defining hyperglycemia varied across studies (6.4 to 11.1 mmol/L), but this had no clear effect on the observed OR for poor outcome.
Conclusions: After aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, admission glucose levels are often high and hyperglycemia is associated with an increased risk of poor clinical outcome. A randomized clinical trial is warranted to study the potential benefit of glycemic control after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.