Weight loss surgery for teenagers has long-term benefits

FRIDAY, Nov. 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Hilary Fisher credits weight-loss surgery as a teenager that pushed her to a better life.

Fisher is one of 260 teens who took part in a long-term study that recently concluded that weight-loss surgery can have long-term health benefits for obese teens.

“It changed my life,” Fisher, now 31, said in a news release. “The improved health and self-esteem that came with losing 100 pounds was important to me, and I would definitely do it again.”

Fisher was not alone in her success: The surgery led to significant and sustained weight loss in more than half of the study participants over a ten-year follow-up, researchers reported Oct. 30 in New England Journal of Medicine.

Adolescents also had fewer health problems associated with obesity in adulthood type 2 diabeteshigh blood pressure and high cholesterol, researchers report.

“Our study demonstrates the impressive results of the longest follow-up of weight-loss surgery in adolescence, supporting bariatric surgery as a safe and effective long-term obesity treatment strategy,” said the lead researcher. Justin Rydervice chairman for research, department of surgery, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

Fisher decided to undergo surgery at the age of 16.

“I was overwhelmed by the daily struggles I faced with my weight, health issues and bullying in high school,” Fisher said. “After many unsuccessful attempts to lose 260 pounds, we decided bariatric surgery was the answer.”

The researchers report that 10 years later, teenagers who had weight loss surgery still had an average of 20% reduction in BMI.

They also had better heart health scores, with an average of 57% lower high blood pressure and 54% lower high cholesterol.

Most impressively, about 55 percent of teenagers who had type 2 diabetes were still in remission ten years after weight-loss surgery, the researchers found.

By comparison, recent clinical trials have shown that about 12% to 18% of adults who have bariatric surgery can expect to have long-term remission of type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.

“This is significantly better than the results reported in people who had bariatric surgery in adulthood, which is the main reason why serious treatment of obesity in adolescents is so important,” Ryder said in a hospital press release.

The researchers note that type 2 diabetes tends to progress more quickly in younger people, so it makes sense that weight loss surgery would benefit teenagers more than adults.

“What’s interesting is that when we do these surgeries in teenagers, the remission of health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure is longer than when the surgeries are done later in adulthood,” said the senior researcher. Dr. Thomas Ingechief surgeon at the Lurie Children’s Clinic.

The researchers found that the two main types of weight loss surgery, gastric bypass surgery and sleeve gastrectomy, produced similar results.

The researchers concluded that these results show that weight loss surgery is underutilized in adolescents.

Nearly 5 million teens are eligible for weight-loss surgery, but only 1 in 2,500 severely obese teens get the procedure, researchers say.

More information

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has more information surgical weight loss for teenagers.

SOURCE: Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, news release, Oct. 30, 2024; National Institute of Health, news release, October 30, 2024