Man admitted for back surgery, gets diabetes diagnosis instead: case report

Consider diabetes whenever middle-aged patients present with subacute leg pain or weakness, doctors advise
Diabetic amyotrophy

A man admitted to hospital for spinal decompression turned out to have diabetes with associated muscle atrophy, in a case that has prompted a call for doctors to consider the diagnosis in similar patients.

The 49-year-old man, who had no family history of diabetes, was scheduled for a spinal decompression for acute burning pain that radiated from his left buttock to the left lateral leg.