According to a new study, stomach bypass surgery may help severely obese teens cut their weight by 27 percent while helping eliminate high blood pressure, abnormal kidney function, diabetes and cholesterol problems.
Of course, this kind of surgery won't fix all health issues related to being morbidly obese, with the report suggesting that 13 percent of patients will require additional surgery for things like having their gall bladder removed. In addition, more than half of patients in the study had issues with low iron levels, which can be solved by taking supplements.
"When you are the parent of a morbidly obese teen and you are contemplating surgery, it's reassuring to see a large study like this that gives you a little more peace of mind that this intervention is safe and effective," said Dr. Thomas Inge, chief author of the study and surgical director for the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Surgical Weight Loss Program for Teens.
The study was presented at the annual meeting for the Obesity Society in Los Angeles, and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It included five U.S. centers, with 242 adolescents aged between 13 and 19 enrolled. Most of the participants were white females and the average body-mass index (BMI) was 53. An example of a BMI of 53 would be a 5-foot-3-inch teen who weighs 300 pounds.
While most of the participants were still obese after surgery, with the average weight going from 325 to 240 pounds, 95 percent who had diabetes before no longer had it, and 86 percent experienced a remission in their abnormal kidney functionality. Also, 74 percent of participants no longer experienced high blood pressure and 66 percent of them no longer had issues with their cholesterol. The weight loss, improvements in blood sugar and less stress on kidney function can reduce the risk of strokes, heart attacks and other health conditions in the future, researchers noted, if the participants keep the weight off. As part of a larger study, the patients will be followed for another 10 years.
More research is still needed, especially when it comes to diverse populations, but the study does suggest that weight-loss surgery can be as beneficial for teens as it is for adults, despite the fact that teenagers' bodies are still developing. Doctors do, however, warn that surgery should be the last resort after things like diet and exercise have been ineffective.
