Gastric Banding for Teens?

How young can you be to have Weight loss surgery?

Morbid obesity is dangerous for any individual with the condition and one of the many ways to resolve the situation has been to perform either Lapband surgery, gastric band, or even gastric bypass surgery. All of these bariatric procedures pose risks; however, the benefits far outweigh the risks for those patients who decide to take on this type of surgery. In recent years the question of whether teens should have Lapband or another type of obesity surgery has been examined. Many authorities on the subject feel as though teenagers should not be undergoing bariatric procedures because they're not ready, they won't fully participate in the weight loss efforts following the surgery, or it simply won't work. However, several doctors in the medical field have challenged these concerns and have actually found their results to be quite the opposite.

Dr. Nadler Performing Teenager Lapband Procedures

Since 2001, Dr. Nadler and his associates at New York University have been performing the Lapband surgery on teenagers ranging in ages from thirteen to seventeen years old with the average age of his patients being fifteen years old. Their results from the initial 73 teen patients who underwent the surgery turned out quite well. Dr. Nadler found that the weight loss surgery risks are nearly the same as they are for his adult patients. He also found that all of his patients who received extensive follow-up care actually lost more than half of their excess weight with more improvements being seen in the second year following the Lapband procedure. These results essentially support the fact that it is safe for teens to undergo weight loss surgery, and the specific Lapband procedure has been used to demonstrate it.

Why Teen Lapband Procedures Work

There are several reasons why the Lapband surgery has proved successful in morbidly obese teenagers. First, the Lapband procedure as an effective bariatric surgery technique has long been shown to be successful so it's no surprise that it works just as well on teenagers. Critics of this weight loss surgery being performed on teenagers contend that it is too risky because teenagers either won't comply with the nutritional and dietary regulations following the Lapband surgery or they simply will regain the weight that has been shed. It is true that the most common complication to this bariatric procedure was nutritional deficits as in Dr. Nadler's patients. However, his teen patients that had this weight loss surgery were still able to go through nutritional counseling and also take nutritional supplements to combat any other complications that might arise.

Benefits of Teenager Lapband Surgeries

There are major benefits to teenagers who decide to have bariatric surgeries. For example, they have a much better quality of life. This can be seen in their home life, their school experience, as well as their social life. Teenagers who successfully undergo weight loss surgery are able to make friends easier and they also are able to boost their self-esteem! Another major benefit is the loss of co-morbidities in teenagers who have Lapband procedures and weight loss surgery. In Dr. Nadler's experience with performing teen Lapband procedures, all of his patients who received intense evaluation in the years following the surgery were found to have more than 65% of their co-morbidities completely resolve themselves simply because of the weight loss!

All in all, teenage weight loss surgery is definitely worth the price paid! Everyone benefits from the surgery and the teenager is able to have a better quality of life because of it. Not only is it true that the majority of teenagers will end up successfully combating obesity by following doctors' orders after a Lapband procedure or other bariatric surgery, but it's also true that other conditions resulting from obesity completely resolve themselves! Criticisms of the bariatric procedures may be valid for some cases, but the overwhelming majority of teen Lapband surgery cases end with success!