Diabetes mellitus has been shown to affect the outcomes of various orthopaedic procedures. Although orthopaedic sports medicine procedures tend to be less invasive and are often performed on younger and healthier patients, diabetes is associated with an increased risk of postoperative infection, readmission, and lower functional outcome scores. However, this risk may be moderated by the glycemic control of the individual patient, and patients with a low perioperative hemoglobin A1c may not confer additional risk. Further research is needed to evaluate the impact of diabetes on surgical outcomes in sports orthopaedics is needed, with the goal of evaluating mediating factors such as glycemic control in mind.
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