Bariatric Surgery

Approximately 9 million children suffer from obesity, and strategies to curb the childhood obesity epidemic have not provided significant results. There are few weight-loss medications that are FDA-approved for patients under the age of 18, and surgery, while repeatedly shown to be safe and effective in this age group, remains utilized in less than 1% of school-aged patients stricken with the disease. It is clear that once patients are in the severe obesity category, bariatric surgery is the most efficacious method of achieving significant and sustainable weight loss. As such, we will review how our MBSAQIP-accredited adolescent bariatric surgery center manages these patients at what is the nation’s busiest child-and adolescent-only weight-loss surgery program. It is an evidence-based approach developed over the past 11 years at a standalone children’s hospital and is an explicitly pediatric-based approach.