India, June 4 -- New research suggests that weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy may help some patients avoid knee replacement surgery.
Earlier studies had shown that GLP-1 medications can reduce pain caused by knee osteoarthritis; however, it was not known whether they could also lower the chances of needing knee replacement surgery.
For this study, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the US analyzed health records of 6.8 million adults diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis between 2010 and 2024.
They identified around 42,000 patients who had taken a GLP-1 drug for at least one year and compared them with a similar group of patients who had not used these medications. The researchers also looked at dat...