THE ROLE OF LIRAGLUTIDE TREATMENT ON WEIGHT LOSS FOR PATIENTS WITH SUBOPTIMAL INITIAL RESPONSE OR WEIGHT REGAIN AFTER BARIATRIC SURGERY

Background:Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs) are a form of incretin-based therapy that treats hyperglycemia and, in some situations, cardiovascular risk in persons with type 2 diabetes. Aim:Is to determine the efficacy and safety of prescribing GLP1-RAs for patients who had suboptimal initial response or regained weight after bariatric surgery.PatientsandMethodes:A retrospective cross-sectional study was done from the 1st of February /2023 to the 1st of August/2024 in Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital, Iraq. Clinical data including (age, sex, height, weight, BMI, any chronic disease, time of bariatric surgery) were collected. Eighty-six patients were divided into two groups for the study. Seventy-two patients in the first group who gained weight after the weight nadir at least a year after bariatric surgery, 14 patients in the second group who had suboptimal initial response 12 months following bariatric surgery. Liraglutide was administered for 4 -8 months for both groups.Results:The study revealed that 70.9% of patients from both groups responded to the GLP1 therapy, with slightly higher responsiveness in the weight regain group (73.61%) than in the Suboptimal initial response group (57.14%), the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.358).Both groups significantly reduced their BMI, with a mean pre-treatment to post-treatment BMI difference of 6.02 ±1.97 in the Suboptimal initial response group and 6.06 ± 1.21 in the weight regain group. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.18).Both groups lost weight, with the Suboptimal initial response group losing 10.9% of their weight from pretreatment to post-treatment and the weight regain group gaining 11.3%. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.112).Conclusion:We discovered that liraglutide 3.0 mg helped post-bariatric surgery patients who had either too much weight gain or insufficient weight loss.