SAT-323 USE OF LIRAGLUTIDE FOR WEIGHT LOSS IN KIDNEY TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS: REPORT OF 14 CASES

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Kidney transplant improves outcomes in patients with end-stage renal disease including improved survival and quality of life. Transplant teams face increasing challenges to manage obese patients before and after kidney transplantation. Transplant centers are having lower threshold to accept obese patients for transplant. Also patients gain weight after transplantation. This may increase the risk for developing cardiovascular disease and worsen control of blood sugar, blood pressure and lipids. Dosing of different medications may be challenging in obese patients. There are newer options to help patients lose weight in the general population. Using Liraglutide is one of the options. We report on 14 patients who underwent kidney transplantation and were treated with subcutaneous Liraglutide to help lose weight. They were followed up for an average of 12 months. The average age of the patients was 46.7 and they were included around 14.9 months post-transplant. All 14 patients were taking tacrolimus, mycophenolate and prednisolone (5 mg daily). Patients lost 3.6 kg on average at 6 months 3.8 kg at 12 months. The average dose of Liraglutide was 2.4 mg per day. Creatinine did not significantly change. Urine protein/Creatinine came down by 0.4 at 6 months and 0.51 at 12 months. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) came down on average 0.35 g/dL. None of the patients developed new post-transplant diabetes during the 12 months. Two patients did not lose any weight during the 12 months but they were not compliant with the medications. Nine patients developed nausea and vomiting within 2 weeks of starting the medication but all of them improved with lowering the dose. One patient discontinued the medication at months due to recurrent nausea and vomiting. No episodes of acute pancreatitis, allergic reactions or hypoglycemia were reported. In conclusion, in this case series, the use of Liraglutide after kidney transplantation was tolerated. The sample in this case series is small and the data was collected retrospectively but Liraglutide could help in weight loss after kidney transplantation. The findings in this case series need to be confirmed in a large prospective study with a longer follow-up period.