Physicians at the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery, which opened at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in 2006, recently performed the 100th laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding procedure, according to a NewYork Presbyterian news release.
The LAGB procedure helps adolescents who were unable to lose weight by other means. The National Institutes of Health considers a BMI of 25 overweight, while 30 or above is considered obese. The average pre-operative BMI for adolescents undergoing LAGB at the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery is about 48, although patients with a pre-operative BMI of 35 may undergo surgery if they are already suffering from diabetes or obesity-related illnesses.
"Adolescent obesity continues to be under-treated," Charles J.H. Stolar, MD, surgeon-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and chief of the division of pediatric surgery and the Rudolph N. Schullinger Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in the release. "We know that obese 14- to 18-year-olds are at risk for significant and even fatal conditions as they grow older. In cases where medical therapy doesn't work, surgery is an effective treatment option."
Bariatric surgery has not been performed as commonly in adolescents largely because the long-term consequences have not been fully studied. The Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery is one of only four U.S. centers that are part approved by the FDA currently evaluating the outcomes of LAGB in teens. All potential surgical candidates undergo a comprehensive assessment by a team that includes a pediatrician, a pediatric endocrinologist, a gastroenterologist, a pulmonologist, a psychiatrist, an exercise physiologist, a nutritionist, a bariatric surgeon, an anesthesiologist and a pediatric nurse practitioner. Before they can be considered candidates for LAGB, patients must complete a program of thorough screening and comply with rigorous weight-loss education and therapy, according to the release.
Although LAGB is showing promise for helping morbidly obese youngsters lose weight, it should not be thought of as a magic bullet but rather another tool in the arsenal.
"Our initial numbers show that about a year after surgery, most of our patients have lost about one-third of their excess body weight. We have a few patients who have even lost 100 percent of their excess weight after two years," Jeffrey L. Zitsman, MD, director of the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and associate professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in the release. "But even with surgery, the patient and his or her family still have to make a real commitment to changing what the youngster eats and to making certain lifestyle changes."
Read the release on the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery.