Bariatric surgery in morbidly obese adolescents: a 4-year follow-up of ten patients.
BACKGROUND
In cases that do not respond to non-surgical multidisciplinary treatment regimes, it seems the only possibility to offer bariatric surgical procedures.


METHODS
All ten patients (17.3+/-3 years old; body mass index (BMI): 49.1+/-6.8 kg/m(2)), who underwent bariatric surgery because of their morbid obesity at the Medical University of Vienna were included in the study and underwent medical care, psychological and nutritional treatment from a physician, a psychologist, and a nutrition expert before and after surgery (follow-up for a mean of 41+/-15.6 months) at regular intervals.


RESULTS
In total, all patients had a BMI loss of -10.33 kg/m(2), standard deviation, SD+/-6.6 (range from -3.3 to -25.07) at follow-up after 41 months, SD+/-15 months (range from 3 to 57), two patients dropped out because of lack of compliance. From a psychological perspective, the actual psychological condition was measured by five different psychological tests, e.g., 80% had a high score for depression, and 40% had negative self-acceptance.


CONCLUSIONS
The laparascopic gastric banding operation was not as effective in weight reduction as expected. We have to turn our attention to compliance, postoperative treatment and the psychological component.
Widhalm
Kurt
K
Division of Nutrition and Metabolism, Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Dietrich
Sabine
S
Prager
G
G
Silberhummer
G
G
Orth
Denise
D
Kispal
Zoltan Farkas
ZF
D000293:Adolescent; D050110:Bariatric Surgery / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012649:Self Concept; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015431:Weight Loss