Research

Hormonal

Preoperative optimization with GLP-1 agonists (specifically semaglutide 2.4 mg/week) enables patients with severe obesity (BMI ≥ 35 kg/m²) to achieve target BMI ≤ 35 kg/m², making them eligible for complex abdominal wall repair.

If you have severe obesity and need complex abdominal wall surgery, standard diet and exercise often fail to lower your BMI enough for safe surgery. Using GLP-1 agonists (like semaglutide) for about 8 months can help you lose enough weight (average 11.3%) to meet the safety threshold (BMI ≤ 35) for the procedure. This makes you eligible for surgery that might otherwise be denied or deemed too risky.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The success rate of GLP1 agonists (defined as BMI ≤ 35 kg/m2 before IHR) was reached for 15/24 patients (62.5%).
B. Romain et al. · World Journal of Surgery · 2025

Why this rating

Bicentric pilot study with a small sample size (n=24 experimental, n=52 control) and lack of statistical power for complication outcomes.

Source

Patients With Severe Obesity Are Made Eligible for Complex Abdominal Wall Repair After Preoptimization With GLP‐1 Agonists: Results of a Bicentric Pilot Study

B. Romain et al. · World Journal of Surgery · 2025

DOI 10.1002/wjs.12547

cohort · n=76Cited 6×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →