A study published in Journal of Cosmetic Surgery found a dose-dependent relationship between the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and cosmetic body contouring procedures.
The on- and off-label use of GLP-1 receptor agonists for weight loss has increased significantly in recent years. People who achieve significant weight loss may have excess skin that requires body contouring interventions.
Researchers from Rush University in the United States conducted a retrospective analysis and pulled data from the PearlDiver patient record database containing data on over 150 million patients collected between 2010 and 2022. Prescription rates for semaglutides, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, and liraglutide (Saxenda) were associated with body contouring procedures performed in 30 US states between 2011 and 2022. Breast procedures included mastopexy, reduction, and augmentation.
Among patients prescribed liraglutide (n=4655), osembic (n=881), and wegovy (n=59), the mean (SD) age was 48.0 (8.0), 49.4 (7.0 ) and 44.8 (7.3) years. 62.2%, 64.6% and 64.1% were female, respectively. Patients were prescribed a mean (SD) dose of 1.80 (0.35), 1.08 (0.28), and 2.31 (0.46) mg, respectively.
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Understanding the different weight loss patterns, time frames, and plateaus is critical to counseling patients about what to expect from using these drugs and may be one reason for the short time to cosmetic surgery among users. of these drugs.
The average age of patients who underwent panniculectomy, brachioplasty, breast augmentation, and liposuction surgery after receiving semaglutide or liraglutide was approximately 50 years. The majority of surgeries were performed in California, New York and Florida.
The proportion of patients undergoing the 4 most common body contouring procedures increased as the dose increased. Among patients receiving the lowest and highest doses of each drug, the proportion undergoing panniculectomy increased from 2.3% (lowest dose) and 4.2% (highest dose) to 3.1% and 5.1%; brachioplasty from 0.9% and 1.1% to 1.4% and 2.2%, breast augmentation from 5.1% and 6.5% to 7.0% and 9.8% and liposuction from 1.6 % and 2.3% to 2.5% and 3.9% respectively.
Liraglutide use was directly associated with liposuction (r, 0.22; Pi <.001), brachioplasty (r, 0.18; Pi <.001), panniculectomy (r, 0.17; Pi <.001) and breast augmentation (r, 0.17; Pi <.001). Ozempic use was associated with brachioplasty (r, 0.23; Pi =.01), panniculectomy (r, 0.21; Pi =.006), liposuction (r, .21; Pi =.02) and breast augmentation (r, 0.17; Pi =.04). Wegovy use was correlated with breast augmentation (r, 0.28; Pi =.03) and panniculectomy (r, 0.24; Pi =.04).
Patients using Wegovy had the shortest mean time to resection (96.71 days) and liposuction (143.714 days), while those using liraglutide had the longest mean time to resection (1216.80 days) and liposuction (1189.243 days).
In a time series analysis, an autoregressive integrated moving average model predicted a slow increase in body contouring procedures over the next 12 months.
This study was limited as data on demographic characteristics and medical history were not available.
The researchers concluded: “Understanding the different weight loss patterns, time frames, and plateaus is critical for counseling patients about what to expect from the use of these drugs and may be one reason for the small time intervals to cosmetic surgery among users of these drugs’.
