Obesity has now reached epidemic proportions amongst teenagers and, while numbers remain small in comparison to the overall number of weight loss surgeries performed, bariatric surgery is increasingly being performed on adolescents. So is this the answer for obese teenagers?
The traditional answer to excessive weight gain has been to follow a strict program of behavior modification including diet and exercise and, while this has helped a minority of teenagers in the short term, the majority have gone on to become obese adults. For this reason some doctors have turned their attention towards weight loss surgery as a solution.
Until recently however this essentially meant gastric bypass surgery, such as the traditional Roux-en-y form of surgery and, even in the hands of the most experienced of surgeons, such surgery carries a small but nonetheless very real risk of death. In the case of many adult patients this risk is often considered to be acceptable when balanced against the fact that obesity is already causing, or is likely to cause in the very near future, other serious health problems. In otherwise fit and healthy teenagers however many surgeons have felt that, even at just one or two percent, this risk is too high.
The advent of lap band surgery has changed the picture considerably however and an increasing number of surgeons feel comfortable with this form of weight loss surgery for teenagers. But just how successful is gastric band surgery in adolescents?
Well that’s not an easy question to answer as laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery is still a relatively new procedure and the number of adolescent patients, while on the rise, is still small. Nevertheless, statistics are becoming available and they are looking very encouraging.
In one recent study carried out by the New York University School of Medicine for example a total of fifty three teenagers (forty one girls and twelve boys) between the ages of thirteen and seventeen showed some impressive result after undergoing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.
The teenagers, who on averaged weighed just under three hundred pounds before surgery and had an average body mass index (BMI) of forty seven, had lost some fifty percent of their excess weight eighteen months after surgery. In addition, all came through the surgery without complications and only five developed relatively minor complications after surgery, which were treated without difficulty on an outpatient basis.
At this point of course it is impossible to say what the long term results will be for this group of patient and only time will answer that question. Nevertheless, these initial results are encouraging.
Despite these encouraging results there is still one problem which many doctors see as being a major obstacle to the widespread use of lap band surgery in adolescents and that is the fact that the success of surgery in the longer term depends very much on patients making often quite dramatic changes to their lifestyle and also adjusting to a strict diet and exercise plan. For many doctors this raises the question of whether or not many teenagers will be able to understand this and will have the maturity to cope with it.
