Overweight children have more surgery and experience more complications from their operations than normal weight children, according to a new study at the University of Michigan Health System.

Researchers studied the records of 6017 children who had surgery at the University of Michigan hospitals between 2000 and 2004. More than a third of them were overweight; half of those were obese. Many of the surgeries that the heavier children underwent had to do with being overweight, such operations for breathing problems, sleep apnea, and digestive issues.

The researchers also found that overweight children who had surgery experienced more complications, usually because of health problems associated with obesity and formerly diagnosed only in adults. For example, overweight children were more likely to be diabetic, which made them more prone to infections.

Michigan has one of the nation's highest rates of obesity, which means that what holds true there may not be the same in every other state. This study appears in the February 2007 Journal of the National Medical Association.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, gastric bypass, obesity surgery, overweight children, weight loss surgery