Drug safety chiefs have warned patients and medics that weight loss jabs like Ozempic increase the chances of someone choking to death on the operating table.
The risk relates to how the jabs help patients lose weight by slowing down the digestive process, helping them feel full for longer, and reducing food intake.
But this digestive slow down can lead to partially digested food remaining in the stomach for longer.
This can mean standard fasting procedures, used to ensure a patient’s stomach is empty before they are put under for an operation, may not be enough to keep patients safe.
Such safeguards exist because material left in the stomach can come back up during an operation and enter a patient’s airway and choke them similar to accidentally swallowing food down the windpipe during a meal.
This bacteria rich partially-digested food can also enter the lungs directly causing a potentially deadly lung infection called aspiration pneumonia.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has now ruled that warnings about this risk should now be added to patient information for Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, also known broadly as GLP-1 and dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonists.
Officials have also told medics to quiz patients on if they are taking the medications before surgery.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has ruled that warnings about the risk should now be added to drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro
‘Residual gastric content is a risk factor for aspiration in patients who undergo surgery or procedures with general anaesthesia or deep sedation,’ the regulator said.
‘All GLP-1 and dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonists slow down gastric emptying, therefore patients taking these medicines may have a higher risk of pulmonary aspiration due to retained gastric contents.
‘This can potentially lead to severe complications.’
The MHRA said there had been a small number of reports of patients on the jabs suffering choking during surgery in the UK.
They added there had also been one case where a patient suffered aspiration pneumonia, where food, liquids, or saliva getting sucked into lung or airway causing an infection.
In response to these concerns, they said new warnings would be added to leaflets distributed with the drugs to raise awareness of the issue.
The regulator also advised to medics to quiz patients on if they are taking the jabs before operations as part of pre-surgery risk assessments.
Officials warned medics that as private prescriptions for the drugs may not appear on a patient’s medical history so they should be asked directly.
When given the drugs patients should also be warned to tell any future healthcare team involved in their care that they are on them, the MHRA added.
However, patients were advised not to stop taking the drugs before surgery without talking to the medical team.
Instead, anaesthetists will make a preoperative risk assessment for each patient and take standard steps to prevent or minimise the risk.
The MHRA’s new warning comes on the back of an American study which found patients taking semaglutide had a 33 per cent higher chance of suffering aspiration pneumonia during an endoscopy.
An endoscopy is a procedure where a camera is inserted via the mouth to examine the upper digestive tract.
About half a million Britons are now thought to be using weight loss jabs, which can help them lose up to 20 per cent of their bodyweight in just a few months.
The drugs have been hailed as huge breakthrough in the battle against obesity.
However, a number of concerning risks have been associated with their use, including a potential higher risk of thyroid cancer.
A Mail on Sunday investigation earlier this month revealed almost 400 patients had been hospitalised — some with life-threatening complications — since the rollout of the jabs in the UK.
Like any medication, the jabs are known to cause side effects that vary in both frequency and severity.
Other reported problems include constipation, fatigue, stomach pain, headaches and dizziness.
Bizarre symptoms, such as hair loss, have also been reported among some patients.
Doctors have also long told how they are treating increasing numbers of slim women who end up in hospital after falsely telling online chemists they are overweight to pass eligibility checks.
Under NHS guidelines, only patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of over 35 and at least one weight-related health problem like high blood pressure, or those who have a BMI of 30 to 34.9 and meet the criteria for referral to a specialist weight management service, should be prescribed Wegovy.
Only patients with a BMI of more than 35 and at least one obesity-related health problem can get Mounjaro.
Ozempic is a dedicated type 2 diabetes medication.
