With the advent of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) therapy and the findings of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) the management of type 1 diabetes has changed drastically. Over the past 30 years since its development, the effectiveness of CSII as compared to other modes of intensive treatment has been assessed. Additionally, improvements in pump delivery systems have been made. Herein the findings of the studies on pump therapy will be reviewed. Selection criteria of patients for pump use and how to initiate pump therapy will be presented. Finally, newer findings on continuous glucose sensors will be discussed as the next era of pump therapy continues to focus on the goal of developing an artificial pancreas.
Keywords
Type 1 Diabetes; Continuous Subcutaneous Insulin Infusion (CSII); insulin pumps; multiple daily injections (MDI)
Dawn of Pump TherapyContinuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) pump therapy was introduced to treat patients with type 1 diabetes in the late 1970's (1,2). Until then, care of individuals with type 1 diabetes was crude, involving one or two daily injections of NPH and regular insulin of animal origin that was not purified, adjusting insulin doses based on urinary glucose excretion, and dietary counseling focused on limiting simple sugars and maintaining fixed macronutrient intake at each meal. Due to the limitations of this regimen and fear of hypoglycemia, particularly in children, glucose levels often averaged over 300mg/dL. It is also important to remember that at that time, a causal relationship between poor glycemic control and the development of complications was suspected but not yet proven. Thus, it is not surprising that the demonstration that CSII could provide a more physiologic method of insulin replacement in T1DM was enthusiastically received (1-4). Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG), hemoglobin A1c assays (HbA1c), and purified insulin preparations were also introduced in the late 1970's and the basal bolus approach utilized for CSII was adapted for use in multiple daily injection (MDI) regimens. These advances made intensive treatment of T1DM possible and set the stage for the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) that was launched in 1983.Intensive therapy did not come without a price. An increased risk of severe hypoglycemia, due in part to reductions in counterregulatory hormone responses to hypoglycemia, was demonstrated (5,6). This acquired inability to symptomatically identify low blood glucose Address for Corresponding author: Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, P.O. Box 208064, New Haven, CT 06520-8064, 203-785-4279 (tel), 203-737-2829 (fax)
NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript levels due to repeated episodes of mild hypoglycemia was named "hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure" (7) and made patients even more vulnerable to severe hypoglycemic events. Consequently, the need to solve the puzzle of the relationship between hyperglycemia a...