Weight loss surgeries on the rise amongst US adolescents

The number of obese adolescents seeking surgery to lose weight has seen a significant increase in the first three years of the current decade. Weight loss surgery is usually a strategy of last resort for adults and is quite uncommon in young people.

A report published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine this month, stated the number of morbidly obese teenagers who had weight loss surgery, was more than three times in 2003 compared to 2000. For the previous block of four years between 1996 and 2000, there was little variation. For the whole period from 1996 to 2003, the analysis of hospital inpatient data revealed 2744 adolescents had surgery for weight loss out of which 771 surgeries were performed on adolescents in 2003.

Dr Randall Burd of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in New Brunswick is the lead author of the study. He said weight loss surgeries on adolescents represent less than one percent of the ‘bariatric’ procedures performed nationwide and there was little data available to judge the risks and benefits of surgical weight loss in adolescents.

He added single-center and multi-center studies are increasingly revealing the potential health benefits of weight loss surgery in teenagers, but accurate information about complications and death are not yet available. No early deaths have been reported thus far.

Dr Thomas Inge, co-author of the study noted the early complications that occur immediately after surgery are relatively low in teens and they also spend less time in the hospital following the procedure. But, Dr Inge added, teenagers have different psychological responses after surgery and some are quite unanticipated. Rapid weight loss after surgery might just as well trigger more confusion in the identity-seeking teenager.

Gastric bypass or the method of shrinking the size of the stomach was the preferred procedure in adolescents. Most had private health insurance cover and significantly more boys than girls opted for surgery. But the authors also noted the low number of weight loss surgeries on adolescents reported could mean many are being performed at health centers that do not have adequate experience to handle this group.

The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center has announced a large-scale five-year study on how children respond to various types of weight loss surgery from medical and psychological standpoints.

Children are usually advised surgery only when conventional methods applied for at least six months do not show results. For weight loss, exercise as an option could be dicey as the physical strain would be too much for the obese children with their weak hearts.

Childhood obesity is a precursor to adult obesity and has severe psychosomatic consequences. Fat people have low self-esteem, are depressed and often complain of sleep disorders. Moreover, obesity is also a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoarthritis, hernia and urinary incontinence. Information on the short-term and long-term impact of weight loss surgery on morbidly obese adolescents could help align these programs with those for adults.