Postoperative Pain Management Considerations in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Abstract

It is not uncommon for a patient to judge the success or failure of a surgical procedure by the pain or lack thereof that they experience during the postoperative period. Limb preservation surgery affects more than 160,000 Americans annually; many of these patients suffer from diabetes mellitus and have altered protopathic and epicritic sensation. However, diabetes mellitus and depressive symptoms are bidirectionally associated, and depression is a risk factor for opioid misuse. Appropriate pain management in this population can be complex and often requires a "patient-centric and procedure-focused" analgesic prescribing approach to optimize outcomes.