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Postop Pain Differs by Vitamin D Status
Patients with preoperative vitamin D deficiency had higher postoperative pain scores and opioid use after mastectomy, including more than triple the odds of moderate to severe pain within 24 hours of surgery.
To investigate the relationship between preoperative vitamin D status and postoperative pain levels in breast cancer surgery patients.
Key Findings:
17% of vitamin D-deficient patients reported moderate to severe pain at 12 hours post-surgery compared to 2% in the vitamin D-sufficient group.
At 6 hours post-surgery, moderate to severe pain was reported by 33% of vitamin D-deficient patients versus 20% of those with sufficient vitamin D.
Vitamin D deficiency was associated with more than three times the odds of experiencing moderate to severe postoperative pain during the first 24 hours after surgery.
Interpretation:
Limitations:
The study was conducted at a single center with all participants being Egyptian, which may limit generalizability.
Short follow-up period and lack of assessment of inflammatory markers, anxiety, depression, cancer stage, neoadjuvant therapy, or sleep disturbance.
A randomized trial found similar short-term morbidity and 12-month functional outcomes with both approaches, while highlighting the need to balance perfusion with a tension-free anastomosis.
