Doctors Now Spe­cial­izing in Ado­lescent Bariatric Surgery to Battle Obesity Epidemic

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The childhood obesity epidemic has created a new field of medicine. Not only are there now doctors specializing in pediatric weight management, there are even doctors focusing on adolescent bariatric surgery.

"If we can treat that adequately with behavior modification and medical therapy, that's the best, but in some extreme cases, surgery might be the best option," said Dr. Carroll Harmon, Pediatric Surgeon-in-Chief at Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo and Surgical Director of Children’s Healthy Weigh of Buffalo.

Harmon was one of the first doctors to perform adolescent bariatric surgery. He was part of the National Institute of Health's first study on gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy in obese children.

"In the early phase, it appears that the teenagers have very good weight loss, fairly consistent with adults who have gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy and that the complication profile is very low and within very acceptable range in the short run," said Harmon.

Teenagers in the NIH's study had to have a body mass index of over 40 or in the 99 percent percentile for weight. To be a candidate, they were required to have complications as a result of their obesity.

"Seventy percent had sleep apnea, 70 percent has dyslipidemia, 50 percent had hypertension so, these are all teenagers who had complications of obesity, not just obesity," Harmon said.

"I'll tell a brief story about a patient I had in Alabama who came to our program at age 13 or 14 and his BMI was 85. He enrolled in our program and about three months into our program, he collapsed and died at school one day - of probably a heart attack so, this is a serious issue for those patients at the extreme."

The risks of the surgery are the same for adolescents as for adults.

"The differences are really more in the pre-operative care and the post-operative care. The operation on the inside is going to be relatively the same as an adult having bariatric surgery," said Harmon.

"Some of the children can lose weight too fast and become unhealthy from rapid weight loss. We would monitor that and ensure that's not happening."

Harmon said that if patients get the right post-operative care, they get to a healthy weight and even reverse some of their health complications like Type 2 diabetes. For long-term success, doctors say patients will need a lifetime of follow-up care.