Sleeve Gastrectomy in Adolescents with Morbid Obesity

Sleeve gastrectomies in adolescents were developed out of necessity to find a safe, effective treatment method for adolescents with obesity who have failed all other medical options. Current medical treatment includes rigorous multidisciplinary weight management. When that fails, the surgical procedures of gastric bypass and gastric banding have been offered. These surgical options have proven suboptimal. Gastric bypass procedures are associated with high mortality and morbidity, and federal regulations prevent the use of gastric banding in children under the age of 18. Therefore, using evidence-based literature from adult populations, the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Children's National Medical Center worked to develop a safe, effective surgical treatment, the sleeve gastrectomy, for adolescents with obesity.

The goal of sleeve gastrectomy in adolescents with morbid obesity is to provide a safe, minimally invasive surgical solution to weight loss when modifications to exercise and diet fail.

Between January 2010 and December 2011, 23 patients between the ages of 14 and 19 underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. All of the procedures were completed via laparoscopic approach and patients remained in the hospital for an average of 2.2 days. There was no operative mortality and no patients suffered long term surgical morbidity. The average excess weight loss of the patients who reached one year follow up was 40%. Even more importantly, the majority of patients who underwent the surgical procedure had complete resolution of their weight related comorbidities.