[ti:Weight Loss Drugs May Risk Complications under Anesthesia]
[al:Health & Lifestyle]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-08-21]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Doctors who practice anesthesiology in the United States and Canada are expressing concern about patients who take popular weight loss drugs leading up to surgery.
[00:13.02]Anesthesiologists work together with surgeons to make sure their patients are asleep, or sedated, before medical procedures.
[00:24.35]More and more people are taking the weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.
[00:31.08]Anesthesiologists say they are having trouble deciding when surgeries should take place.
[00:38.06]That is because the weight loss drugs cause people to hold food in their stomachs longer than usual.
[00:45.86]People who still have food in their stomachs when they are put to sleep before surgery risk a complication known as a pulmonary aspiration. 
[00:57.82]That is that is the term for when someone breathes some of their stomach contents into their lungs. 
[01:05.65]In extreme cases, the food particles can cause infection or even death.
[01:12.40]Most patients are told to not eat for about eight hours before surgery.
[01:20.24]However, the doctors say those guidelines may need to be changed for patients who are using the weight loss drugs.
[01:31.24]Ion Hobai is an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
[01:39.97]He said everyone who takes the drugs should know about "such a serious sort of potential complication."
[01:50.47]Komodo Health is a technology company that works in healthcare.
[01:56.50]According to its research, nearly 6 million prescriptions for the weight loss drugs were written in the first five months of 2023.
[02:09.58]In June, the American Society of Anesthesiologists said patients should not take daily weight loss medications on the day of surgery. 
[02:22.27]It also advised that patients should not get their weekly weight loss injection for a week before any sedation procedures.
[02:33.57]Dr. Michael Champeau is the head of the organization.
[02:39.39]He said the recommendation is based on experiences from anesthesiologists around the United States.
[02:49.13]A group of anesthesiologists, including Hobai, said they would recommend even more time off from the drugs before surgery.
[02:59.10]In the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, they suggested about three weeks.
[03:06.58]Dr. Philip Jones is an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
[03:12.86]After three weeks, he said, the drug should no longer be affecting the stomach.
[03:18.29]At that point, he said, "everything should go back to normal."
[03:23.13]Hobai said he is finishing a study of 200 patients who were using drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy before surgery. 
[03:33.67]He said his results are similar to a smaller study in Brazil that found 25 percent of patients still had food in their stomachs 10 days after stopping the drug.
[03:49.41]Because of this information, the American Society of Anesthesiologists said doctors who are unsure of their patients' stomach contents should work differently. 
[04:01.37]They say doctors should work as they would if they knew the patient's stomach was full.
[04:10.61]Aspiration only happens one time out of every 2,000 to 3,000 operations that require sedation.
[04:19.63]But when it does happen, the patients develop a lung injury half the time. That is why the doctors are concerned.
[04:29.59]One of Hobai's patients who had been taking Wegovy developed a problem that required serious care. 
[04:36.52]He had not eaten for 18 hours before surgery.
[04:41.75]In another case, a woman taking a small amount of Ozempic did not eat for 10 hours before surgery.
[04:49.75]She was in the middle of a procedure that had to be stopped because doctors saw food in her stomach.
[05:00.39]Dr. Elisa Lund is an anesthesiologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
[05:07.82]She said many doctors have similar stories, as the weight loss drugs have become more common.
[05:15.73]"It has exponentially increased," she said.
[05:21.08]Novo Nordisk is the drug company that makes Wegovy and Ozempic. 
[05:27.21]The company said there was nothing in its testing that showed the drug would lead to aspiration.
[05:35.69]However, the drug-maker did say the medications can cause the stomach to empty more slowly.
[05:45.29]Hobai said he is also concerned about patients going off their medications for too long. 
[05:53.67]For example, the drugs are used to control the blood sugar level of patients with diabetes. 
[06:02.33]If they stop taking them before surgery, they may face a different kind of health problem.
[06:11.01]He said patients who are using the drugs should tell their doctors about them and discuss the risks of having surgery.
[06:21.46]"If you're taking this drug and you need an operation, you will need to have some extra precautions," he said.
[06:31.45]I'm Caty Weaver. And I'm Dan Friedell.