Heart Surgery and Diabetes

Featuring Ria Torr, MN, NP- Adult, Nurse

Duration: 1 minute, 4 seconds

Patients who have type 2 diabetes and undergo cardiovascular surgery may be at a greater risk for infection and for poor healing. It’s important to optimize the glycemic control while they’re in the hospital. Sometimes this means using insulin, but that doesn’t mean that patients are going to be discharged on insulin if they weren’t on it before the surgery.

Patients who undergo surgery have a test called a hemoglobin A1C done before the surgery, which can either diagnose them with a new onset type 2 diabetes, or tells us how well their diabetes is being managed in the community on the regiment that they’re on now.

The stress of the surgery, however, causes elevated blood sugars, and in order to control or manage these sugars we do use insulin. It’s important to continue to manage your blood sugars once you’re discharged from the hospital to optimize your recovery. You can work with your family doctor or with the diabetic education center to maximize your recovery.

Presenter: Ria Torr, Nurse, Newmarket, ON

Local Practitioners: Nurse