Stopping MJ before General Anaesthetic. Any experiences?

[NiLunNiLautre]

I’m having a minor op under GA in two weeks time. Have pre op assessment on Tuesday, but wondering if I was silly to have injected on Friday (two weeks one day before surgery).
I told my gynaecologist (who’s doing the op) and she just said to ask at the assessment.

How long beforehand should you stop taking MJ, and even if they say it’s fine is there still a risk?

In knots about this!
Thanks

I had a minor procedure ( but involving general anaesthetic) and took my normal Friday dose for an operation on the following Thursday, I was told about a week between was fine.

You’ll probably find nobody medical wants to advise you on this sadly. I have seen two weeks mentioned on some of the American weight loss facebook groups. However mounjaro can stay in your system 25-30 days

I had emergency surgery under GA a few months ago six days after my last jab.
My family told the doctors and all was fine but I was glad they told them so they were aware of the slow down to food digestion.
I’m not saying you should keep taking doses but make sure you mention it when you have your assessment and I’m sure 2 weeks will be fine.

OP I've just posted this on another thread.

I have a hysteroscopy under GA on Tuesday. I was originally told I could continue on MJ but have now been instructed to have 4 clear days off it.

So I had to pause my usual jab on Friday night and hopefully can resume Tues evening or Wed morning.

The admissions team will advise you but it must be very common now as the hospital even had a leaflet about wli and GA's!

I had major surgery back in April and my pre op was 2 weeks before but I injected that same morning without thinking! They said it was fine 2 weeks before and the only concern is because of the delayed gastric emptying. I remember I didn’t eat anything for at least 24 hours prior to the surgery as I was anxious but it was unnecessary and they just said to fast from midnight before the surgery as normal. They didn’t give me any aftercare advice about restarting so I just told them I’m gonna inject a week after as I was pretty much recovered by then and they didn’t tell me not to. So in total I missed 2 doses. I had no issues FYI but just make sure you tell your surgical team and follow their advice.

I do always think though that people have emergency surgery all the time and they’ve not fasted.

The reason is that mounjaro can make food stay in your stomach for days.
Please be honest with your anaesthetist.

It is rare to anaesthetise somebody who is not fasted. Even for emergency surgery we normally wait until they are fasted.

There are additional precautions we can take to reduce the risk of aspiration (stomach contents entering the lungs) in patients who are not fasted and those at a higher risk of aspiration.

(Anaesthetic nurse)

Thank you all so much.
Oh I’m going to be totally honest about it, don’t worry… if there’s a risk I’d rather not have the op, frankly! Looks like a 2 week beforehand injection with extra fasting will be OK then?

Im just worried that I’ll not get a chance to speak to anaesthetist beforehand. Wish I’d never taken Friday’s dose!

It’s standard procedure for the anaesthetist to talk to patients before surgery. If for some reason it doesn’t happen, I would ask.

I’ve just found this online which seems to suggest that the consensus is you can continue meds but you must communicate with your healthcare provider. I personally would stop give it at least a weeks break just to be on the safe side. I’m sure you’ll be fine op associationofanaesthetists-publications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/anae.16541

@Pyjamatimenow thanks for that, it’s very helpful.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I hope your procedure goes well @Sallycinnamum x

I’m waiting for a pre op assessment but I’ve had a diabetic plan regarding Anaesthetic and it didn’t mention mounjaro, so I rang diabetic clinic and she said no need to stop it but I will check when I get to assessment.

Fab @52soon I’m reading more and more that it’s OK as long as they know. My assessment is on Tuesday, so I guess I’ll find out what they say then.

I stopped one week before and took my dose the day after my surgery.

I’ve got another operation coming up, this time on a Friday. I’m planning on taking the dose the previous Friday as usual and then the next one when I get out of hospital on the Sunday/Monday. I can’t see me wanting to eat too much hospital food anyway so should be able to continue to loose weight! ( My surgeon is very pleased with my weight loss so far😊)

https://anaesthetists.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Guidelines%20PDFs/anae16541-sup-0001-appendixs1.pdf?ver=2025-03-11-160334-233

this is the patient summary from the Association of Anaesthetists

The problem with mj is the fact it causes delayed gastric emptying. So it’s normal you don’t eat after midnight but your stomach contents can be 3-4-5 days old on mj, that’s why you get so very burpy. My anaesthesiologist said he wanted 3 full weeks off it and no arguments due to the risk of aspiration. So if my surgery was the 21st my last injection would have to be before the 1st. He said others would say 4 . I’m currently waiting for stomach surgery and they said it was 4 weeks clear or no surgery.

@NiLunNiLautre how did it go at assessment regarding stopping Mounjaro? Got my date for op on 8th July, booking nurse said they’re not too bothered about stopping now but originally it was 4 weeks before op then 2 weeks. I’m due to jab day before op but I will give it a miss until I’m back home