Review · Volume 5, Issue 4 · pp. 227–231

Management of diabetes in the elderly with canagliflozin: A newer hypoglycemic drug on the horizon

Vishal Sehgal¹, Sukhminder Jit Singh Bajwa², Rinku Sehgal³, John A Consalvo⁴

¹Department of Internal Medicine, The Commonwealth Medical College.
²Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Gian Sagar Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India.
³Department of Internal Medicine, Wright Center, College.
⁴Department of Emergency Medicine, Regional Hospital of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.

Abstract

Canagliflozin is the first available oral inhibitor of sodium/glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) in the market. At the outset it sounds excellent for the use in the elderly diabetic population, because of its minimal tendency to cause hypoglycemia. However, the clinician needs to exercise caution as it needs to be dosed renally. The clinician needs to be circumspect about potential drug interactions, especially when there is an underlying chronic kidney disease (CKD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). Also its use is best avoided in people who are predisposed to genital mycotic and urinary tract infections (UTI).

Keywords: Chronic kidney disease; congestive heart failure; diabetes mellitus type 2; drug interactions; elderly

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