At a time when there are growing concerns about a national epidemic of obesity among teenagers, a new study focusing on morbidly obese teens who have last-resort bariatric surgery has found that the procedure poses no greater risks for them than for adult patients, and that, in fact, they have a zero death rate and a faster rate of recovery than older patients.
Gastric bypass, stapling or similar procedures known as bariatric surgery is an approach to weight management for morbidly obese patients, which has documented results in improved health outcomes for adults.
Now researchers at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have used data from a large national database to examine nationwide trends from 1996 to 2003 in the use of adolescent bariatric surgery in the first effort to compare the early postoperative results following bariatric surgery in adolescents and adults.
The study, published in the March issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, shows that surgery among teens has tripled in recent years, increasing in the U.S. from an estimate of just over 200 procedures in 2000 to almost 800 procedures in 2003.
The new study also compared the costs of surgery for adults and teens, finding that adolescents had lower hospital charges. Total hospital charges in 2003 for adolescents undergoing bariatric surgery were $23.6 million and for adults was $3.8 billion. The average hospital charges associated with these procedures were 15 percent lower for adolescents than for adults. Similar to adults, most adolescents had private insurance.
Although bariatric surgery among adolescents has increased, it is by no means a common procedure, representing fewer than one percent of the bariatric procedures performed nationwide. The study found that although the majority of surgery recipients are female, more male adolescents are requesting it.