How I treat ... with metformin a diabetic patient with moderate renal insufficiency
Abstract
Numerous patients with type 2 diabetes have renal impairment, especially in the elderly population. Metformin, the first choice oral glucose-lowering agent, is classically contraindicated in case of chronic kidney disease of stages 3-5 (creatinine clearance < 60 ml/min/1.73 m2), because of a risk of accumulation of the biguanide that may lead to lactic acidosis. Hence numerous patients with some degree of renal impairment are being treated with metformin in clinical practice, apparently without any harm. In contrast, several observational studies have shown that they may clinically benefit from this therapy, including with a significant reduction of all-cause mortality when compared to patients not receiving metformin. Thus, an increasing number of physicians plea for revisiting the official criteria of contraindication to the use of metformin in case of renal insufficiency. The present paper discusses this controversy and insists upon the mandatory cautions to be taken when using metformin in a diabetic patient with moderate (stage 3) chronic kidney disease (metformin being contraindicated in case of severe renal impairment - stages 4-5).
Read the paper
Related studies
- Metformin as an adjuvant in breast cancer treatment
- Metformin Lysosomal Targeting: A Novel Aspect to Be Investigated for Metformin Repurposing in Neurodegenerative Diseases?
- Aberrant HSF1 signaling activation underlies metformin amelioration of myocardial infarction in mice
- Metformin induces ZFP36 by mTORC1 inhibition in cervical cancer-derived cell lines
- Protein Interaction Network for Identifying Vascular Response of Metformin (Oral Antidiabetic)
- Preventing Long COVID With Metformin
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.