A Comparison between Oral Hypoglycemic Agents and Insulin in treating Gestational Diabetes Mellitus regarding their Safety and Efficacy

Mahabbat, Nadin Anam A; Alkinani, Jannah Abdulrahman; Alsaadi, Hadeel Taha Yahya; Nono, Ahdab Faisal; Almutairi, Sara Mutni; Alawami, Narjes Hassan; Almagboul, Shahad Abdullah; Alaaddin, Ammar Osama; Shagdar, Talha Kamal; Mandura, Ziyad Abdullah

doi:10.21608/ejhm.2018.15396

A Comparison between Oral Hypoglycemic Agents and Insulin in treating Gestational Diabetes Mellitus regarding their Safety and Efficacy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University For Health Sciences

² Ibn Sina National College

³ Al-Qassim University

⁴ Jordan University of Science and Technology

⁵ Umm Al-Qura University

⁶ King Abdulaziz University

10.21608/ejhm.2018.15396

Abstract

Background: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is one of the most common comorbidities of pregnancy. It can cause a various complications for both mother, and fetus. Therefore, many studies have been done to evaluate different management measures. Objective: In this study, our objective was to assess the recent literatures regarding the comparison between oral hypoglycemic and insulin in treating GDM regarding the safety and the efficacy. Methods: PubMed database was used for articles selection, and the following keys used in the mesh ("Gestational Diabetes Mellitus/management"[Mesh] OR “Gestational Diabetes Mellitus /metformin"[Mesh] OR “Gestational Diabetes Mellitus /insulin"[Mesh]). A total of 99 articles were found, with further restriction by PubMed filters, and reviewing the articles titles and abstracts the final results were 7 articles. Conclusion: Oral hypoglycemic can be an effective and safe alternative treatment to insulin for women with GDM. There was no significant risk of maternal or neonatal adverse outcome with the use of metformin or glyburide. Treatment with metformin or glyburide was found to be equivalent for both women and newborns. However, metformin was found to be associated with a higher failure rate than glyburide in treating GDM.

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