Presentation and Management of Liraglutide-Related Pancreatitis: Systematic Review of Case Reports

Background: Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1 agonist) aimed towards promoting glucose-dependent insulin secretions. This medication is an emerging treatment option for the management of obesity through promoting satiety. However, there are a growing number of cases noting adverse effects of liraglutide. Of note, liraglutide has been seen to elevate serum amylase and lipase levels among users, and therefore promoting acute pancreatitis. Moreover, the overall presentation of liraglutide-related acute pancreatitis can be variable. The aim of this study is to determine qualitative patterns of presentation and meta-analysis of lab changes among acute pancreatitis patients on liraglutide. Methodology: Systematic review of the literature was performed on MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for liraglutide-related acute pancreatitis case studies, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and checklist. Meta-Analysis performed using Stata. Results: Twenty-one patient cases were identified then contingently evaluated for acute pancreatitis based on presentation, labs, and treatment outcomes. Within the pancreatitis cases, the average age of onset was 59 ± 16.5 (male = 58 ± 24.5; female = 56 ± 24.6). Upon qualitative review, 14.3% of patients were asymptomatic but showed elevated serum amylase and lipase levels following liraglutide administration (p < 0.05). Among the symptomatic group, there was variation in the duration of liraglutide administration and reported compliance. There was no significant difference among treatment regimes between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups. Conclusion: Longer duration of liraglutide treatment without dose adjustment was notable to show elevated rises in both serum amylase and lipase. However, the variation of patient symptoms cannot be determined through the duration of treatment. Patient demographics do not seem to play a role in acute pancreatitis episodes. Future studies ought to focus on larger patient samples to further develop an understanding of treatment duration, presentation, and management of acute pancreatitis management after liraglutide administration.