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Waiting too long to have surgery for obesity may mean that a severely obese teenager will not achieve normal weight, according to a new study from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

• Dr. Thomas Inge and his colleagues studied 61 teenagers a year after they had gastric bypass surgery, an operation that involves stapling the upper portion of the stomach to create a small pouch that restricts the amount of food a person can eat at one time.
• The group that was the most overweight managed to lose nearly 40 percent of their body mass index (BMI), but that did not mean they achieved a medically-recommended weight.
  
• The ones who had the lowest BMIs going into surgery had the lowest BMIs a year after the surgery.
  

Having the weight loss surgery did help the teenagers reduce their blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglycerides.

The study appeared in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Labels: obese teens, weight loss surgery, gastric bypass

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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, weight loss surgery, overweight children, gastric bypass, obesity surgery

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More adults than ever are undergoing stomach surgeries to lose weight. Now these same surgeries may become available to obese teens and children.

Four major children's hospitals are participating in a large-scale study this spring to determine if the surgeries can benefit young people. The Federal Food and Drug Agency approved the study in February 2007.

The surgical techniques to be used include gastric bypass, in which doctors staple a pouch off from the rest of the stomach and connect it to the small intestine. Another technique is laparoscopic gastric banding, in which doctors put an elastic collar around the stomach to limit food intake.

Children rarely undergo such operations because they are risky and the long-term results are unknown. Over 177,000 adults had such surgeries last year.

However, a small study done at New York University Medical Center found that teens could benefit. Doctors operated on 53 teenage boys and girls, who had an average weight of 297 pounds. Most lost over half their weight after their surgeries. However, fifteen had complications that were mostly minor. This study appears in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery.

Other hospitals participating in the new experiment are University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Childrens Hospital of New York-Presbyterian.

Labels: weight loss surgery, gastric bypass, FDA

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