Background and objectives: The investigators performed this study to explore whether the
presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) would affect the outcomes of axillary brachial plexus
blocks (ABPBs) in patients undergoing elective forearm and/or hand surgery. The primary
hypothesis was that the sensory block duration would be delayed in diabetic patients.
Methods: After obtaining ethics committee approval and written informed consent, 71 patients
were enrolled to the study. Diabetic patients were included in Group DM and non-diabetics
were included in Group NODM. All received ultrasound-guided ABPBs with the mixture of 10 mL
lidocaine 2% and 20 mL bupivacaine 0.5%. Our primary outcome was sensory block duration, and
secondary outcomes were sensory and motor block onset times, motor block duration,
time-to-first-pain (numeric rating scale (NRS) ≥4), postoperative NRS scores and rescue
analgesic consumption (NRS) ≥4) through the postoperative first 2 days. All outcomes were
assessed by a blinded investigators.