Anti-obesity class of drugs related with fewer post-surgery complications: Study

Taking the ‘GLP-1 receptor agonist’ class of anti-obesity drugs is related with lower rates of post-surgery complications in people with diabetes, according to a study.

GLP-1 receptor agonist, or GLP-1 RA, drugs help treat diabetes by weight loss, improving blood glucose levels and increasing insulin sensitivity, low levels of which are a risk factor for diabetes.

Researchers, led by those at Weill Cornell Medicine, the US, analysed hospital records of over 74,400 surgical procedures performed from February 2020 to July 2023 on nearly 22,000 patients with diabetes.

Patients taking the anti-obesity drugs had about 12 per cent lower risk of hospital re-admission within a month of surgery, compared to those not taking these medications, according to the findings published in the journal ‘Annals of Surgery’.

The team also found 29 per cent lower risk of wound re-opening within six months of surgery, and about 56 per cent lower risk of haematoma — when blood collects in a tissue due to an injury at the surgery site — in this group of patients.

“These findings from such a large number of patients and procedures suggest that taking these drugs shouldn’t worsen overall post-surgical complications, and may even reduce the likelihood of some of them,” senior author Dr Jason Spector, chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery and a professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, said.

For the analysis, the researchers recorded the rates of 30-day hospital re-admissions and post-surgical adverse events during the follow-up period of at least six months. The rates were compared among patients with and without active GLP-1 RA drug prescriptions.

The results showed that the patients who were prescribed GLP-1 RA drugs were modestly less likely to require hospital re-admission within 30 days of surgery, implying fewer overall complications.

“An active perioperative GLP-1 RA prescription in patients with diabetes was associated with significant reductions in risk-adjusted readmission, wound dehiscence (re-opening), and haematoma, and no difference in infection and bleeding rates,” the authors wrote.