Background: Morbid obesity prevalence is rapidly increasing among adolescents worldwide. Evidence is mounting that bariatric surgery is the only reliable method for substantial and sustainable weight loss; however, the debate continues with regard to the optimal surgical procedure for adolescents and to the age limit when bariatric surgery should be proposed.
Methods: A retrospective multicenter review included all late adolescent patients (<20 years old) who underwent sleeve gastrectomy from 2005 to 2012 in three French bariatric centers: Montpellier University Hospital, Casamance Private Hospital, and Noumea Regional Hospital. Collected data included age, sex, body mass index (BMI), intraoperative complications, length of hospital stay, operative morbidity, the need for reoperation, and percentage of excess weight loss (% EWL) at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years postoperatively.
Results: A total of 61 adolescent patients have undergone sleeve gastrectomy. Of these, 42 were women and 19 were men. The mean preoperative weight was 132.8 kg (range 90-217 kg) with a BMI of 46.7 (range 35.5-68.7). Seventeen patients (27.9%) were superobese (BMI > 50), and seven patients (11.5%) were supersuperobese (BMI > 60). All the procedures were performed by laparoscopy with no intraoperative complications. The mean hospital stay was 4.6 days. Four major complications were recorded: one staple line leak, two hematomas, and one case of pneumonia. No mortality was recorded. The % EWL at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years postoperatively was 48.1% (±17.9%), 66.7% (±19.5%), and 78.4% (±16.8%), respectively, for a follow-up of 93.4, 81.9, and 52.4%, respectively. There were 18 patients (29.5%) with identified comorbid conditions: 10 cases of sleep apnea, 7 cases of hypertension, and 1 case of type 2 diabetes, with a resolution rate of 77.8%.
Conclusions: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy may be advantageous for this age group, since it involves neither foreign body placement nor lifelong malabsorption. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy represents an attractive bariatric procedure for adolescent patients, more efficient than gastric banding and with less morbidity compared to gastric bypass.