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GLP-1 drugs linked to lower risk of serious heart-related complications and infections after surgery

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GLP-1 drugs linked to lower risk of serious heart-related complications and infections after surgery

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GLP-1 medications, widely prescribed for diabetes and weight loss, may also help protect people from serious complications after surgery. People taking GLP-1 medications had lower rates of major heart-related complications and infections after surgery than those not taking the drugs, according to results of a study of more than 2 million adults undergoing surgery presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2026 annual meeting.

"GLP-1 medications have become part of everyday care for many people with diabetes or obesity, but physicians still need more evidence about how these drugs affect patients around the time of surgery," said Josephine Tolan, M.D., lead study author and an anesthesiologist at the Center for Outcomes Research, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston.

"These results are encouraging, but we need more research to determine if the medications themselves are driving these benefits and how best to manage them before and after surgery."

Researchers analyzed data from the Epic Cosmos database, a de-identified electronic health record database that includes information from more than 1,700 hospitals and 40,000 clinics. The study included adults 18 and older in the U.S. who had elective surgeries lasting longer than 60 minutes and stayed in the hospital at least 24 hours after surgery between January 2016 and December 2024.

Of the 2,028,601 patients studied, 145,610, about 7%, were taking GLP-1 medications.



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