July 7, 2000
Insulin Analogs, Insulin Pumps
Question from a diabetes nurse educator in North Carolina, USA:
I have a client using Humalog in her pump. She is about 14 years old. Several months after pump initiation, she and her provider noted pitting atrophy at her infusion sites. They switched back to buffered Regular and noted some improvement. Has the Humalog been noted to cause this reaction in other “pumpers”?
Answer:
We have more than 50 people on insulin pumps, all using Humalog and nobody having any problems with either hypertrophy or lipoatrophy. If you are sure that your patient is rotating sites appropriately and still getting lipodystrophy, it would be reasonable to use an alternative insulin, of course.
SB
Additional comments from Jeff Hitchcock, The Editor:
We recently ran a poll in which people using pumps reported using Humalog almost 10 to 1 over Regular.
JSH
