Research

Hormonal

Perioperative use of GLP-1 receptor agonists in obese patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty significantly reduces the incidence of periprosthetic joint infection and 90-day hospital readmissions.

If you are obese and scheduled for hip replacement, ask your surgeon about continuing or starting GLP-1 agonists (like semaglutide) up to 3 months before surgery. This may lower your risk of infection and hospital readmission without increasing other complications.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Perioperative GLP-1 therapy was associated with a significantly reduced incidence of PJI after total hip arthroplasty and fewer 90-day hospital readmissions, corresponding to an absolute risk reduction of approximately 1.8% from a median baseline risk of 9% and an estimated number needed to treat of 56.
André Daniel Aires Fernandes et al. · Cureus · 2025

Why this rating

Moderate certainty for THA-PJI and readmission based on observational cohorts with potential residual confounding.

Source

Reducing Periprosthetic Joint Infection in Patients With Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Emerging Role of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Receptor Agonists

André Daniel Aires Fernandes et al. · Cureus · 2025

DOI 10.7759/cureus.99805

Meta-analysis · 8 studies
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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