Lantus given wrong time

I made a sort of similar error, I did not give a patient their regular insulin until 15 minutes before breakfast. It should have been given about 30 - 45 minutes before breakfast. Poor time mgmt. on my part. I have heard of errors like yours too. My friend says it happens at the LTC facility more often than you can imagine. It is an awful feeling though, but the reality is that we all make mistakes. By the way, I have never given Lantus, how often did the Dr. say to keep checking blood glucose?

It is perfectly OK to be worried and you did the right thing about informing the doctor. His non-chalant response was probably based on the fact that of all the long-acting insulins available, Lantus, is one preparation that virtually has no peak of action. Unlike NPH, for example which peaks at 6-12 hours after administration, Lantus delivers a steady blood glucose lowering action so there is no need to be worried about sudden drops in the blood sugar levels at certain times of the day. Lantus has a duration of action of 24 hours, so you're right that the patient was exposed to double doses of insulin from 9 PM to 6AM. Hopefully, the patient's blood sugar levels were not too adversely affected and that he was able to get back to the AM dosing of Lantus for his next daily dose.

Lantus doesn't act as does a quick-acting regular insulin. It steadies the BG over a 24 hour period.

Calm down. The doctor wasn't concerned because there's no need to be. And if he just ate that big snack maybe the extra was a good thing.

We give Lantus at night. We hardly ever give Lantus in the AM. The goal of Lantus is to level out the patients blood sugar.

And there are physicians that actually order Lantus q 12 hours. As mentioned above, Lantus does not have the peaks that the others do. And each patient is different. There are also some physicians that only order Lantus to be given in the am.

There are many factors added in when prescribing this drug. And no only one correct time.

For someone with type 2 DM, 12 units of nLantus is a very small dose. Since pt was down to 58 next a.m., he seems to have good insulin sensitivity. Some docs prefer Lantus at bedtime since it does not last full 24 hrs for everyone. Docs who give in a.m. usually do so to prevent nighttime hypoglycemia. The actual time of day of Lantus isn't as important as making sure that it is give at about the same time each day. Giving Lantus at night reduces the possibility that pt will mix it with the fast acting analog.

Even though Lantus doesn't have a pronounced peak, if the dose is too high, it can produce low BG. If you have a pt who has been getting Lantus in a.m., but would prefer night time injection, teach pt the correct way to change timing is by moving injection 1 or 2 hrs later each day until desired time is reached. Rx instructions say to move in 1 hr increments, but I've found the 2 hr increments work well.

Endos usually use BID dosing for those who are on very small doses. For example, someone with type 1 DM might have daily dose of 8 units. Small doses are less likely to last 24 hrs, so more often an 8 unit dose would be given as 2 injections of 4 units each.

We always give Lantus at HS. This is a long-acting insulin, you did the right thing by reporting this to the Doctor. I don't believe that this should "bottom-out" the patient even though it was 9 hours early. Just in case, monitor the patient closely and inform them to ring for you if they start to feel as if their blood sugar is dropping.

Lantus was essentially made to be given @ HS b/c it doesn't have a peak time and it is used to level out glucose levels over an extended time period. You did the right thing reporting it anyway.