The number of obese children having weight loss surgery has tripled in recent years, or by more than 1,000 such operations this year, new research suggests.

While weight loss surgeries are still far more common in adults, obesity surgery appears to be slightly less risky in teenagers, according to an analysis of data on 12- to 19-year-olds who had obesity surgery from 1996 through 2003. During that time, an estimated 2,744 youngsters nationwide had the operations.

 

Children and teenagers had slightly shorter hospital stays than adults and none died in the hospital during the study period.

About 5 per cent of children and adults had major complications, mostly respiratory problems. Children spent an average of about 3.2 days in the hospital in 2003, versus 3.5 days for adults. The youngest patients were age 12, but most were older teens.

By contrast, there were 212 in-hospital deaths out of an estimated 104,702 adults who underwent obesity surgery in 2003, or a rate of 0.2 per cent, researchers at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre found.

The study appears in yesterday's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 

 Other news