Is Weight Loss Surgery a Good Option for Children and Adolescents?

Morbidly obese children and adolescents may benefit from bariatric surgery, but in some situations it may be too early to be a serious option. A study of the Body Mass Index (BMI) of a sampling of adolescents before and one year after bariatric surgery showed a reduction of approximately 37% without regard to the level of obesity of the patient before the operation. As a result, the post-operative BMI is tightly correlated to the earlier BMI reading, and an adolescent patient who is severely obese may still remain severely obese after the surgery.

However, if assessing the success of the bariatric procedure in ways other than weight loss and reduced BMI, other benefits begin to reveal themselves. Almost all co-morbidities associated with obesity, such as diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension, were almost completely eliminated in the patients one year after surgery. By improving the quality of life, health, well-being, and glucose metabolism of an adolescent, bariatric surgery should be considered a viable option. The only restriction would be the skeletal and psychological maturity of the patient. With patients who are still mentally immature, non-surgical alternatives could be explored until the patient is capable of adhering to dietary recommendations and complying with long-term treatment. Pre- or mid-puberty, patients may benefit more from behavior modification therapy, weight-loss programs, and in extreme cases, pharmacology, until they are able to fully appreciate on an emotional and physical level, the implications of bariatric surgery.