Risks Of Delaying Weight-Loss Surgery
Atlanta Journal Constitution, 2nd October 2009
The latest researches carried out in U.S. showed that the sooner obese teenagers undergo weight-loss surgery, the better.
61 young patients took part in the study. They all had laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. A year after the procedure an overall BMI among the patients decreased by 37%. The patients were still considered as obese, due to their weight from before the surgery.
The research was the first one to show that young people’s weight influences in great respect their postoperative weight. The results were published in the Journal of Pediatrics on 23rd September.
Dr. Thomas Inge, a professor of surgery and pediatrics at the Cinnciati Children’s said: “Current guidelines for adolescent weight-loss surgery suggest that we begin to consider surgery only after a teen is 80 percent to 100 percent overweight.”
“Our new data show that when we intervene when a patient is between 100 percent and 150 percent over ideal weight, we can expect successful resolution of obesity. But by the time the teen is 200 percent over their ideal weight for age, the surgery will reduce their weight substantially, but many of the patients will still remain morbidly obese,” he added.
The conclusion from the study is that waiting too long with the weight-loss surgery might not make the procedure successful enough. It means that both obesity as well as related medical problems might not be 100% cured if proceeded too late.
What can be done about that? Both doctors as well as teenagers’ parents should be able to identify the problem when they gain too much weight in a short period of time, and help them as soon as possible.
