Alcohol-related hypoglycemia in rural Uganda: socioeconomic and physiologic contrasts

Hypoglycemia is a rare but important complication seen in patients who present with alcohol intoxication. In a study by Marks and Teale, less than one percent of people with alcohol intoxication who presented to an American emergency department were hypoglycemic [1]. It is even more rare to see an intoxicated patient, who had been eating appropriately prior to or during the intoxication, present in a hypoglycemic coma. However, our analysis of the first 500 patients seen in a newly opened five-bed Emergency Department (ED) at Nyakibale Karoli Lwanga Hospital in rural southwestern Uganda, revealed multiple intoxicated patients who presented in hypoglycemic coma within hours of eating a full meal. Three of these cases are summarized and discussed below.