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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 26, 2025; 13(30): 110820
Published online Oct 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i30.110820
Published online Oct 26, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i30.110820
Metformin abuse and weight loss: A case report
Bader AlKhateb, Faculty of Medicine, Damascus University, Damascus 20872, Dimashq, Syria
Ouwais Alkhateb, Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beriut 46052, Lebanon
Bisher Daaboul, Department of Gastroenterology, Medical Care Center, Damascus 20872, Syria
Co-first authors: Bader AlKhateb and Ouwais Alkhateb.
Author contributions: AlKhateb B contributed to writing the abstract and discussion; Alkhateb O contributed to writing the case presentation and background; Daaboul B contributed to supervision and was the patient’s primary physician; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bader AlKhateb, MD, Faculty of Medicine, Damascus University, AlMazah, Damascus, Syria, Damascus 20872, Dimashq, Syria. baderal-khateeb@outlook.com
Received: June 16, 2025
Revised: July 6, 2025
Accepted: July 29, 2025
Published online: October 26, 2025
Processing time: 117 Days and 11.5 Hours
Revised: July 6, 2025
Accepted: July 29, 2025
Published online: October 26, 2025
Processing time: 117 Days and 11.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This report described a rare case of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome triggered by chronic metformin abuse in a young female with suspected anorexia nervosa. The patient survived two distinct episodes of metformin toxicity with the second requiring mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and renal replacement therapy. The case highlighted the growing misuse of metformin for weight loss.