Introduction: Loading of thiamine prior to glucose administration during hypoglycemia to prevent Wernicke’s encephalopathy is routine in the prehospital setting. To date no study has looked at the validity of this therapy.

Conclusion: To our knowledge this is the first study in the literature which evaluated the use of thiamine with glucose to prevent Wernicke’s encephalopathy in the prehospital setting. We found that routine administration of thiamine with glucose did not result in differences in respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure, GCS or ED hospital discharge rates. Until further research is done to validate our results emergency medical services leadership should consider whether the routine use of thiamine in the prehospital setting is appropriate for their system.