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Liraglutide-related cholelithiasis.

Aging Clin Exp Res · 2015

Last updated 2026-05-28

A 75-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes, treated with liraglutide for 6 months, developed sudden abdominal pain and was diagnosed with acute cholecystitis and gallstones. After stopping liraglutide and starting ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), her symptoms resolved, and follow-up imaging showed the gallstones had disappeared. This is the first reported case of liraglutide-related gallstones in the literature.

AI summary of the abstract below.

JournalAging Clin Exp Res, 2015
Citations7
Relative citation ratio0.28
NIH percentile17
Molecules liraglutide

Abstract

Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 analog and recently started to be using as an incretin-based treatment for diabetes mellitus. Liraglutide causes some adverse affects including nausea, vomiting, acute nasopharyngitis and acute pancreatitis. However, development of liraglutide-dependent cholelithiasis has not been reported in the literature. A 75-year-old female patient had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus for 10 years and she has been treated by liraglutide for 6 months. The patient was admitted to the emergency service due to sudden onset of abdominal pain. After laboratory and imaging studies, she was diagnosed with acute cholecystitis and cholelithiasis. And then patient's oral intake was stopped, intravenous fluid and ceftriaxone 2 g/day were started. Furthermore, liraglutide treatment discontinued and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) was started to treat cholelithiasis. During follow-up, abdominal pain completely relieved. Hepatobiliary ultrasonography in sixth month follow-up showed entirely regression of cholelithiasis. Any liraglutide-related cholelithiasis case has not been reported in the literature previously. Therefore, our case is the first case. Especially, elderly diabetic patients who are started to liraglutide treatment should be monitored closely for the formation of cholelithiasis. UDCA treatment would be an alternative prior to surgical treatment for liraglutide-related cholelithiasis.

Verbatim abstract via PubMed 25725635 ↗

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