Association between sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors and eye disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Lowering blood glucose is important to prevent long-term microvascular complications in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Various evidence suggests that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are beneficial for microvascular diseases. This study was designed to investigate whether SGLT2 inhibitors have an effect on eye disorders.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, and ClinicalTrials.gov for randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials with at least 24 weeks of follow-up up to 20 December 2023. Mantel-Haenszel statistical method, risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to analyze the binary variables.

Results: We included a total of 40 studies covering 104,586 participants. T2DM was present in 84.5% of the subjects. SGLT2 inhibitors had no significant effect on overall eye events compared to placebo (RR 0.99; 95%CI 0.86-1.15; p = 0.91), nor did subgroup analysis. We did not observe significant heterogeneity (I² = 0; p = 0.99). Analysis of all secondary outcomes showed that SGLT2 inhibitors did not cause a significantly different effect from placebo. Meta-analysis in the entire T2DM population showed results consistent with those in the overall population.

Conclusion: SGLT2 inhibitors did not have a significant effect on eye disorders during treatment, regardless of baseline conditions and duration of treatment.