Vitamin D Deficiency Triples Post-Mastectomy Pain Risk — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Breast cancer patients with vitamin D deficiency (below 30 nmol/L) were three times more likely to report moderate to severe postoperative pain in the first 24 hours after mastectomy, according to a study of 184 women at Fayoum University Hospital in Egypt.
- Vitamin D-deficient patients self-administered an average of 112 mg more tramadol through patient-controlled pumps than those with sufficient levels, and received 8 μg more fentanyl during surgery—a gap researchers described as modest.
- Postoperative nausea was more common in the vitamin D-deficient group, and vomiting occurred only in that group, though the vomiting difference was small and not statistically significant.
- None of the 184 patients experienced severe pain (7 or higher on the 0–10 scale)—the gap between groups came entirely from moderate pain rated 4–6.
- The researchers cautioned that the observational, single-center design cannot prove vitamin D deficiency caused the increased pain, and noted the study lacked data on anxiety, depression, cancer stage, cancer treatment, and pre-surgical sleep disturbance.
- The authors suggested preoperative vitamin D supplementation for breast cancer patients with levels below 30 nmol/L 'may have a role in modulating postoperative pain' in their conclusion published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.
Why it matters: If confirmed by larger trials, the finding points to a cheap, low-risk intervention—preoperative vitamin D supplementation—that could reduce opioid exposure and related side effects in breast cancer surgery patients. With roughly half of the 184 women studied entering surgery deficient, a sizable at-risk population could potentially benefit.
Ask SkimNews
