Insulin Pumps: Safer than Injections?

Compared to multiple daily insulin injections, use of insulin pumps resulted in a 29% reduction in all-cause mortality and a 43% reduction in the risk of fatal cardiovascular disease in a study of 18,000 patients with type 1 diabetes. When considering just coronary heart disease, pump use was associated with an 18% reduced risk. The studyincluded 2441 Swedish patients using insulin pumps and 15,727 patients using multiple daily insulin injections who were followed for an average of almost 7 years. It was presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Vienna, Austria.