Patients with adequate bowel preparation before colonoscopy see an increase in both accuracy and safety for the procedure, but a new study found that patients taking glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists may have a significantly lower quality of bowel preparation.
The study, published in June in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, looked at patients taking GLP-1s who underwent screening or surveillance colonoscopies at a large academic medical center between December 2021 and December 2022.
It analyzed 265 patients taking the medication and 181 control patients and determined that the number of patients who required a repeat colonoscopy due to poor bowel preparation was higher among patients taking GLP-1s.
These medications have been known to delay gastric emptying in the stomach and bowels, which could relate to poorer bowel preparation.
The study authors suggested that additional preparation measures be taken in patients on GLP-1s before undergoing outpatient colonoscopies.