Treatment of Severe Hypertriglyceridemia with Continuous Insulin Infusion

Abstract EN

Severe hypertriglyceridemia (SH) represents a therapeutic emergency because of the possibility of developing cardiovascular events and hyperlipemic acute pancreatitis (PA).

Most patients with SH suffer primary or genetic abnormality in lipid metabolism in combination with a precipitating factor such as uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, and drug intake.

The standard treatment of hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) with omega 3 fatty acids and fibrates, along with dietary changes, has no effect on an emergency situation.

There are no clinical guidelines to SH, but therapy with insulin, heparin, a combination of both, plasmapheresis, or octreotide have been tested succesfully.

We report the case of a 10-year-old girl with clinical acute pancreatitis and diabetic ketoacidosis debut, along with incidental finding of an SH, who had a good outcome after treatment with insulin intravenous infusion.