Publication:

Comparison of metformin and insulin in the treatment of gestational diabetes: a retrospective study

Background As various data are available on treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), our aim is to compare the effect of treatment of metformin, insulin and diet control in GDM on maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Methods A retrospective study was conducted and it includes 50 women of GDM treated with Metformin, 50 women with insulin and 50 with only diet control without any drug.

Results The outcome was not much different in all groups studied. Maternal outcomes were similar in all three groups. The difference was: post prandial glucose values after 2 hour of oral glucose were slightly high in the insulin group than in the metformin group (p <0.003). Neonatal outcome was also not different in all groups. But the incidence of neonatal hypoglycemia was higher in the insulin group (p = 0.03).

Conclusions The study suggests that metformin is effective for GDM and maternal or neonatal outcomes were similar as compared with insulin.