The FDA advised parents to keep a watch on their children's use of pumps, as many times the devices fail to function properly.
The teens may be taking too much insulin because the patient must tell the device how much insulin to dispense before a meal. The amount is not premeasured.
The patient would know that amount based on the estimated carbohydrates in the meal. But the pump also delivers a continuous low level of insulin.
The FDA was prompted to carry out the research after it was notified of five teen deaths that occurred with the use of insulin pumps in 2005. The federal agency carried out a comprehensive study to find out why the fatalities occurred.
The study appears in this month's issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study found 13 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries connected with the pumps over a period of 10 years, including 2 suspected suicide attempts.
Eighty-two percent of the adverse events resulted in teens being hospitalized. There were 102 events in all. This is 6.4 percent of the teen population who use the pumps, the federal review found.
The pumps are used for those with Type 1 diabetes, which accounts for about 5 to 10 percent of all diabetes cases and used to be called "juvenile diabetes." Experts are not saying teens should stop using the pumps, but just that parents may need to be more vigilant about watching over their teens' usage of them, and that more studies need to be done on their safety.
