Intragastric injection botulinum toxin A for obesity management with or without liraglutide

Obesity is a global public health problem with rapidly increasing prevalence in many countries, including Turkey, and different treatment modalities have been used. This study aimed to compare the effect of intragastric botulinum toxin A (BTA) injection and BTA injection combined with low-dose liraglutide in patients with obesity.

Records of 701 patients (female/male, 660:41; mean age, 45.6 ± 6.2 years) who received an intragastric injection of BTA for weight loss between November 2019 and May 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. The patients were divided into the BTA group, which included patients who received BTA injection alone, and BTA + liraglutide, which included those who used liraglutide after BTA injection. The demographic characteristics and comorbid diseases of the patients and follow-up results 6 months after the procedure were evaluated.

In the comparison of the 3-month and 6-month weights of the patients, weight measurements were significantly lower in the BTA + liraglutide group than in the BTA group (p < 0.001 and p  < 0.001, respectively). Adverse effects were observed in 212 (30.2%) of the study participants, of which 25% were observed in the BTA group and 31.8% in the BTA + liraglutide group, with no significant difference.

The intragastric injection of BTA combined with liraglutide is a safe method that provides more effective weight loss than BTA alone, which is minimally invasive without any serious adverse effects.