Assessing Bariatric Surgery in Adolescents

A new observational study has been launched to evaluate the benefits and risks of bariatric surgery in adolescents.

The teen longitudinal assessment of bariatric surgery (LABS) study, launched by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda, MA, USA) at four institutions, is intended to help determine if bariatric surgery is an appropriate treatment option for extremely overweight teens. The researchers intend to enroll 200 adolescents who are scheduled for such surgery and compare their data to 200 adults who had bariatric surgery after being obese since their teenage years. The researchers will collect information on the pre-operative and two-year postoperative status of the participants, and will also store serum, plasma, urine, and genetic samples for future studies.

Recent statistics show that nearly 17% of youths 6-19 years old in the United States are considered overweight. Youths are defined as overweight if they have a body mass index (BMI) that is above the 95% for their sex and age. Overweight youth are more likely to develop serious health problems, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Ideally, the goal for overweight adolescents and teens is to slow the rate of weight gain by eating fewer calories and being more physically active. However, these changes are hard to achieve and other approaches, such as drug therapy, are only approved for use in children 16 years and older.

"The reasons for weight gain are complex and multifactorial, influenced by genetics, environment, eating and physical activity habits, and society,” said Thomas Inge, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Teen-LABS study and principal investigator at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (OH, USA). The information gathered from Teen-LABS will help determine if adolescence is the best time to intervene with this surgical therapy.”

The teen-LABS study is based on the adult LABS study, which examines the benefits and risks of bariatric surgery and its impact on the health and well being of adults with extreme obesity. Launched in 2003, the six clinical centers for the adult LABS have currently enrolled over 4,000 patients in a series of short-term and longer-term studies, which are expected to continue through 2008.


Related Links:
U.S. National Institutes of Health
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center