Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Video Roundtable for Primary Care Physicians
Management Strategies, Interventional Modalities, and Extremity Care
In these 3 videos on diabetic peripheral neuropathy, a panel of pain experts discusses how best to manage the patient experiencing pain from diabetes-related nerve damage.
This is part of the Practical Pain Highlights series from Practical Pain Management, where we bring together pain specialists for a roundtable discussion on important pain topics—especially as they relate to the primary care physician. As a PCP, you see plenty of patients on a daily basis who are dealing with chronic pain. We offer these video roundtables as a way to help you keep up on what's going on in the field of pain management so tha tyou can better address your patients' pain.
Considering that the incidence of type 2 diabetes in on the rise in America, there will, most likely, be more patients experiencing neuropathy caused by the effects of diabetes. Managing diabetic peripheral neuropathy also involves, to some extent, helping the patient better manage their diabetes: getting their blood glucose under better control, for example. However, there are specific treatments to address this form of neuropathic pain. You will learn about those in the videos on management strategies and interventional modalities.
A third video addresses foot care: one of the effects of diabetic peripheral neuropathy is a loss of feeling and sensation in the extremities, particularly the feet. Patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy can injure their foot (perhaps by stepping on something sharp) and not feel that they are wounded. The wound can then become infected and, if left untreated, it can lead to amputation. How do you counsel your patients on foot care? How do you stress the importance of daily foot inspections? Watch the video on extremity care to get valuable tips on how to approach this issue in the diabetic peripheral neuropathy patient.
This video roundtable is moderated by Joseph Shurman, MD, who is Chairman of Pain Management at Scripps Memorial Hospital (La Jolla, CA).