Patients who take blockbuster drugs like Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss may face life-threatening complications if they need surgery or other procedures that require empty stomachs for anesthesia, reports STAT. Some anesthesiologists in the U.S. and Canada say they’ve seen growing numbers of patients on the weight-loss drugs who inhaled food and liquid into their lungs while sedated because their stomachs were still full — even after following standard instructions to stop eating for six to eight hours in advance. The drugs can slow digestion so much that it puts patients at increased risk for the problem, called pulmonary aspiration, Dr. Ion Hobai, an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, was quoted as saying.