Khattab – RUTGERS UNIVERSITY
Pediatricians are sometimes reluctant to recommend bariatric surgery for teenagers, but a study by Rutgers University determined it is a justifiable treatment for adolescents with persistent extreme obesity if they can maintain a healthy lifestyle afterward.
The researchers reviewed studies on bariatric surgery in adolescents and adults in their report in The Journal of Pediatrics.
“If we look at obesity as a disease with the real possibility of eventual organ system failure and special health concerns for adolescents, we need to ask whether health care practitioners are doing enough to manage it,” said lead author Ahmed Khattab, a physician at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. “The objective evidence shows that, under the right circumstances and with the right patients, bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for adolescents with obesity,” said Khattab.
Study authors concluded that obesity and associated comorbid conditions are a major threat to our youth, and bariatric surgical procedures represent an effective, substantial, durable, and a long-term cost-effective intervention that may be significantly underutilized in this vulnerable population.
The findings are consistent with those of a separate study, published May 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
