Metformin versus insulin in gestational diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to assess the use of metformin with or without insulin for the treatment of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus compared to insulin alone.

DATA SOURCES

This article consists of a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. The searches were carried out on MEDLINE including 7 studies, between 2010 to 2021.

STUDY SELECTION

Randomized clinical trials comparing metformin and insulin written in English, Spanish or Portuguese, with no time limit, were included.

DATA COLLECTION

Data was extracted from all the 7 articles and compared statistically when possible. Whenever data was not available or couldn't be statistically compared, the main results were described in detail.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Insulin alone is not superior than metformin with or without insulin on gestational diabetes mellitus.

CONCLUSION

There is a potential viability of using metformin as an alternative compared to insulin alone in the treatment of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. However, all assessed outcomes have a very low level of certainty of evidence and more studies are necessary to support these findings.