Study shows weight loss surgery successful for teens
With a little help from bariatric surgery, teens are losing weight and gaining health
When dealing with obesity in teenagers, it's important to take a careful approach. The consultation process for a teen considering bariatric surgery should be comprehensive and cautious, ensuring the teen is in the best possible place physically, mentally and emotionally prior to surgery. Furthermore, surgery should never be a teen's first weight loss option.
That said, sometimes the best option for a teenager struggling with obesity is bariatric surgery. It's a decision that must be reached by the teen, his or her family, and his or her medical team. And now a study that tracked 228 teens who had gastric bypass or other weight loss surgeries over three years has found that bariatric surgery is effective for teens in terms of both weight loss and vastly improved health.
90 lbs lost on average
The study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the teens lost an average of 90 lbs apiece after undergoing weight loss surgery. The study also found that the teens who had been struggling with obesity-related medical conditions, such as diabetes, had their conditions greatly improved by the bariatric surgery and ensuing weight loss. The reversal or elimination of obesity-related health conditions may actually prove to be more important than the number of pounds lost by the teens.
The authors of the study say that the benefits of weight loss surgery in teens seem to outweigh the risks, but the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Ñ which funded the study Ñ wants to see the patients tracked even longer in order to get the most comprehensive and accurate picture of what the effects truly are.
Guidelines for weight loss surgery for teens
Guidelines say surgery should be reserved for extremely heavy teens with obesity-related health problems who have failed at other weight-loss methods. In the study, the average BMI of the patients was 53 Ñ well over the 30 that qualifies as obese in adults. The most common methods of bariatric surgery for teens are gastric bypass surgery and the sleeve gastrectomy procedure.