The present invention provides techniques by which updates may be incorporated in database indexes without causing deadlocks of user transactions. In deferred-incorporate update, the updates are propagated to the index only at transaction commit time. A method of handling transactions including updates in a database management system comprises the steps of receiving an update to a database maintained by the database management system, the update operable to cause an index of the database to be modified, recording the update in a log, and receiving an indication that the transaction is to be committed and in response, incorporating the update from the log into an index of the database. The update may comprise an insert operation and/or a delete operation.