Editing Diabetic coma (section)

{{Short description|Medical condition}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox medical condition (new) 
| name            = Diabetic coma 
| image           = Blue circle for diabetes.svg
| image_size      = 200px
| alt             = A hollow circle with a thick blue border and a clear centre
| caption         = Universal blue circle symbol for diabetes.<ref>{{cite web|title=Diabetes Blue Circle Symbol |url=http://www.diabetesbluecircle.org |date=17 March 2006 |publisher=International Diabetes Federation |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805042346/http://www.diabetesbluecircle.org/ |archive-date=5 August 2007 }}</ref>
| field           = [[Endocrinology]]
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'''Diabetic coma''' is a life-threatening but reversible form of [[coma]] found in people with [[diabetes mellitus]].<ref name="IrwinRippe2008">{{cite book|author1=Richard S. Irwin|author2=James M. Rippe|title=Irwin and Rippe's intensive care medicine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooH1nH81_h4C&pg=PA1256|access-date=20 November 2010|year=2008|publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins|isbn=978-0-7817-9153-3|pages=1256–}}</ref>

Three different types of diabetic coma are identified:<ref>{{Cite web|title=Diabetic coma - Symptoms and causes|url=https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetic-coma/symptoms-causes/syc-20371475|access-date=2021-12-27|website=Mayo Clinic|language=en}}</ref>

#Severe [[diabetic hypoglycemia|low blood sugar in a diabetic person]]
#[[Diabetic ketoacidosis]] (usually type 1) advanced enough to result in unconsciousness from a combination of a severely [[hyperglycemia|increased blood sugar level]], [[dehydration]] and [[shock (circulatory)|shock]], and exhaustion
#[[Hyperosmolar nonketotic coma]] (usually type 2) in which an extremely high blood sugar level and [[dehydration]] alone are sufficient to cause unconsciousness.

In most medical contexts, the term diabetic coma refers to the diagnostical dilemma posed when a physician is confronted with an unconscious patient about whom nothing is known except that they have diabetes. An example might be a physician working in an [[emergency department]] who receives an unconscious patient wearing a [[medical identification tag]] saying DIABETIC. [[Paramedic]]s may be called to rescue an unconscious person by friends who identify them as diabetic. Brief descriptions of the three major conditions are followed by a discussion of the [[medical diagnosis|diagnostic process]] used to distinguish among them, as well as a few other conditions which must be considered.

An estimated 2 to 15 percent of people with diabetes will have at least one episode of diabetic coma in their lifetimes as a result of severe hypoglycemia.<ref>{{cite web | title = Study: Glucose byproduct may prevent brain damage & impairment after diabetic coma
 | date = 26 April 2005 | publisher = UCSF Medical Center | url = https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2005/04/5264/study-shows-natural-glucose-byproduct-may-prevent-brain-damage | access-date = 4 October 2020}}</ref>