ESPE Abstracts

Background: Obesity during childhood and adolescence can be accompanied by serious long-term adverse health and longevity outcomes. With increased use of bariatric surgery to treat obesity in these patients, diverse guidelines have been published, most of which exclude children aged younger than 14 years. Few reports describe laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in children and adolescents, delay in determining its safety and effectiveness and develop guidance regarding its use.

Method: This study is a retrospective observational study that used data collected from January 2011 till September 2014. All adolescent patients who were less than (or equal) 21 years of age at the time of the study and have undergone laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy at the American University of Beirut Medical Center and in Makassed General Hospital were included.

Results: A total of 112 patients were enrolled in this study, most of were females (71.4%). The median age of the study group was 19 years ±9.6 (range, 11–21 years). The mean percentage of excess weight loss was 42.0%, 66.3%, 84.0%, 84.7%, and 83.4% at 3, 6, 12, 24 and 36 months respectively. No serious postoperative complications developed during the current follow-up. Available comorbidity data indicate resolution of dyslipidemia, 10 of 12 (83.3%); hypertension, 5 of 8 (62.5%); diabetes, 15 of 15 (100%); pre-diabetes, 17 of 19 (94.1%); asthma 13 of 15 (86.6%); obstructive sleep apnea 4 of 5 (80%); and osteo-articular disease 13 of 16 (81.2%).

Conclusion: Our study showed that laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy is an effective and safe weight loss procedure for morbidly obese adolescents offering good weight loss outcomes and significant resolution of many obesity related comorbidities. Moving forward, prospective studies that assess the quality of life of these patients on long-term follow up are recommended especially that data on the psychological impact of bariatric surgery in adolescent is scarce.