Aims: The aim of the study was to determine the clinical characteristics, precipitating factors and the level of glycemic control of diabetic ketoacidosis patients admitted to Debretabor General Hospital, northwest Ethiopia.Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted at Debretabor General Hospital and data was collected from June 1 to 30, 2018.Participants included in the study were all diabetic patients with diabetic ketoacidosis admitted to the General Hospital during the study period. The primary outcome was to determine precipitating factors for DKA and the level of glycemic control of diabetic ketoacidosis patients. All the statistical data was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Result: A total of 387 patients’ medical records contained pertinent complete information included in this study. The mean age of the patients was 33.30± 14.96 years. The majority of patients were females 244 (63.0%). The most common clinical presentation was polyuria and polydipsia in (n=379, 97.9%) of patients. The most common precipitating factor was newly diagnosed diabetics mellitus 150(38.8%). Binary logistic regression showed that for every increase in the duration of the disease(DM) by 1 year, the likelihood of controlling hyperglycemia would increases nearly 1.5 times AOR:1.497 [1.203-1.814].Conclusions: In this study, newly onset type 1 diabetes mellitus was the major precipitating factor for DKA. Polyuria and polydipsia were the most common presenting clinical characteristic of diabetic ketoacidosis. Long standing DM was found to be associated with good glycemic control among DKA patients.