Patients on weight-loss drugs should inform doctor before surgery

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday patients taking weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy should inform their doctor ahead of surgery, due to the risk of respiratory complications potentially associated with such drugs.

Weight-loss drugs, including Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro, belong to a class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists that slow the process of emptying food contents from the stomach, making users feel full for longer.

So a patient taking such drugs could end up with a stomach full of food on an operating table, despite fasting the night before surgery, which could lead to a rare complication of stomach contents moving into the respiratory tract, potentially causing pneumonia.

However, the regulator said it had not yet found a causal link between the GLP-1 drugs and the complication, called aspiration.

The EMA’s drug safety committee said the product information of weight-loss drugs will be updated to include a warning to patients that they should inform their doctor if they are scheduled to undergo surgery under anesthesia or deep sedation.