February 8, 2001
Hypoglycemia
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Question from Virginia, USA:
If inhaling insulin is possible, what about a glucose solution? Wouldn’t it be much handier?
Answer:
From: DTeam Staff
Quite a number of drugs including insulin can be absorbed from the surface of the respiratory tract or the mouth in the amounts needed for treatment, but they often require some special device to achieve this: e.g., asthma inhalers or one of the new units for buccal insulin. In the case of glucose, the actual amount required makes this impractical so that when swallowing a glucose solution is inappropriate the next step would be to use a gel like InstaGlucose in the cheek pouch, and then, if need be, glucagon or intravenous glucose.
DOB
