Of teens who had Type 2 diabetes when they underwent the surgery, “95 percent of them had no sign of diabetes at three years”, Inge says.
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The researchers examined 228 teens, all of whom weighed an average of 330 pounds or more.
Bariatric surgery reversed key obesity-related health problems in severely obese teenagers, according to the largest and longest study of the benefits and risks of the procedure in adolescents. The study found that fewer than five percent of study participants had iron deficiency before surgery, but more than half had low iron stores three years after surgery, supporting the recommendation for monitoring of vitamin and iron supplementation in these patients. Study participants, aged 13 to 19, had an average body mass index of 53.
In this Wednesday, November 4, 2015 photo, Miranda Taylor, 20, poses outside Christ College of Nursing and Health Science in Cincinnati.
Surgery to reduce the stomach’s size is often seen as a last resort for severely obese teenagers, partly because there’s been little information on the procedure’s long-term effects on young people.
-75 percent had unhealthy blood fat levels including high triglycerides and too little good cholesterol: in two-thirds of them it vanished.
At the same time 40 per cent had elevated blood pressure beforehand, with it returning to normal levels in three-quarters of cases.
Most participants in the study also dramatically reduced their blood pressure after surgery, and had improved kidney function and less blood fat.
“Long-term studies like this one will help pediatricians and pediatric subspecialists have informed and balanced discussions with teens and their families about anticipated benefits and risks of bariatric surgery, especially important given that so many of us are now routinely caring for severely obese adolescents with significant health problems”, said Dr. Stavra Xanthakos, a study co-author and pediatric gastroenterologist at Cincinnati Children’s. Since the majority of the participants were over 300 pounds at the start of the study, only a small percentage of them were able to reach a normal weight (five percent).
-13 percent had Type 2 diabetes; it disappeared in more than 90 percent. Taylor lost more than 100 pounds, along with severe depression, pre-diabetes and an obesity-related hormonal condition. I knew that this might not get me down to like model-size, which I wasn’t concerned about. Taylor had obesity surgery when she was 16-years-old.
“I feel awesome”, she said reported by the New York Daily News.
Similar results have been shown in adults, but there’s been more reluctance to perform the surgery in teens because of risks.
Adults that suffer from obesity have a BMI of at least 30, but the teens involved in the study had a BMI average of 53 before surgery.
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His team published the findings online November 6 in the New England Journal of Medicine, to coincide with a planned presentation of the findings at the Obesity Week annual meeting in Los Angeles.
