Table 6

Author, date and country	Patient group	Study type (level of evidence)	Outcomes	Key results	Study weaknesses
Collier A et al, 1987, UK¹	52 consecutive insulin dependent diabetic patients with hypoglycaemic coma.	Controlled clinical trial	Recovery time to “full orientation”	6.5 min v 4 min	Not randomised. Not blinded.
	IV glucagon 1 mg v IV glucose 25 g
Patrick AW et al, 1990, UK²	29 consecutive insulin dependent diabetic patients with hypoglycaemic coma.	PRCT	Recovery time to “full conscious level”	9 min v 3 min	Not blinded. Small numbers.
	IM glucagon 1 mg v IV glucose 25 g		Failures	2 glucagon failures
Hvidberg A et al, 1992, Denmark³	10 healthy non-diabetic subjects with experimental insulin induced hypoglycaemia.	Controlled experiment	Time to normoglycaemia	No significant difference	Non-diabetic subjects
	IM glucagon 1 mg v IV glucose 25 g
Howell MA and Guly HR, 1997, UK⁴	28 insulin dependent diabetic patients with hypoglycaemic coma in the prehospital environment.	Controlled clinical trial	Time to Glasgow Coma Scale score of 15	Significantly longer after glucagon	Block randomised. Not blinded. Small numbers.
	IM glucagon 1 mg v IV glucose 25 g