Dysglycemia is a common complication in hospitalized patients and has been suggested to play a significant role in the pathology and virulence of patients with bacteremia. The literature evaluating this relationship in critically ill patients, however, is limited. This retrospective, single-center cohort study aimed to investigate the relationship of glycemic control with 28-day intensive care unit (ICU)-free days in critically ill patients with bacteremia. Glycemic control was evaluated and determined based on time in targeted blood glucose range (TIR) of 70–140 mg/dL. Using a threshold of 80%, patients were then categorized into 2 groups: TIR-lo (<80%) and TIR-hi (≥80%). Unadjusted data identified a significant difference in ICU-free days (TIR-lo 21.29 days vs TIR-hi 24.08 days, p=0.007). However, due to an excess of zero ICU-free days, a zero-inflated Poisson model was used for analysis and demonstrated that patients in the TIR-lo group were 2.57 times more likely to have zero ICU-free days (p=0.033), which was attributed to mortality. Of the survivors, no difference was seen with TIR status and the number of ICU-free days (p=0.780). These findings demonstrate that glycemic control may increase the likelihood of being liberated from the ICU within a 28-day period, which the authors attributed to increased survival. However, of the patients who left the ICU, glycemic control was not associated with a significant difference in the number of ICU-free days.

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