A necropsy study of diabetes mellitus in natal blacks.

During a period of 10 years (1965 - 1974) necropsies on 126 Black diabetic patients were performed at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban. Metabolic factors accounted for 39% of deaths and infection for 34% of all deaths in diabetes mellitus. Sixty-two per cent of the patients who died were below the age of 55 years. These findings are similar to those pertaining in the pre-insulin era.