Weight Loss in Adolescents After Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review

Five-Year Physical and Psychosocial Outcomes in Obese Adolescents With and Without Metabolic Bariatric Surgery

PURPOSE

Metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) is increasingly accepted as a treatment for severely obese adolescents. However, its long-term efficacy and safety are not well characterized, particularly in the Eastern Asian population. We aimed to explore the long-term effects of MBS on Chinese adolescents with severe obesity.

METHODS

A total of 44 obese adolescents (≤18 years old) underwent MBS at our institution from May 2011 to May 2017. A matched nonsurgical control group, including 43 patients, was recruited from lifestyle modification programs in the same period. All patients completed assessments at presurgery/baseline and five years after surgery. The data were collected and analyzed using the χ2 test and an independent sample t-test.

RESULTS

Comparing the surgical and control groups revealed that the surgical patients showed significant weight loss and improvement in comorbidities, while the nonsurgical patients showed a trend of weight gain and increased comorbidities (p < .05). Furthermore, the surgical patients had a higher composite physical quality of life (as determined by the Short Form-36 questionnaire). On the other hand, the patients who underwent MBS had a higher risk of malnutrition.

DISCUSSION

Compared with nonsurgical patients, severely obese adolescents who undergo MBS exhibit more effective long-term weight loss, remission of comorbidities, and improved quality of life. Furthermore, more attention should be paid to helping adolescents avoid malnutrition after they undergo MBS.

Data assimilation on mechanistic models of glucose metabolism predicts glycemic states in adolescents following bariatric surgery

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a complex and under-treated disorder closely intertwined with obesity. Adolescents with severe obesity and type 2 diabetes have a more aggressive disease compared to adults, with a rapid decline in pancreatic β cell function and increased incidence of comorbidities. Given the relative paucity of pharmacotherapies, bariatric surgery has become increasingly used as a therapeutic option. However, subsets of this population have sub-optimal outcomes with either inadequate weight loss or little improvement in disease. Predicting which patients will benefit from surgery is a difficult task and detailed physiological characteristics of patients who do not respond to treatment are generally unknown. Identifying physiological predictors of surgical response therefore has the potential to reveal both novel phenotypes of disease as well as therapeutic targets. We leverage data assimilation paired with mechanistic models of glucose metabolism to estimate pre-operative physiological states of bariatric surgery patients, thereby identifying latent phenotypes of impaired glucose metabolism. Specifically, maximal insulin secretion capacity, σ, and insulin sensitivity, SI, differentiate aberrations in glucose metabolism underlying an individual's disease. Using multivariable logistic regression, we combine clinical data with data assimilation to predict post-operative glycemic outcomes at 12 months. Models using data assimilation sans insulin had comparable performance to models using oral glucose tolerance test glucose and insulin. Our best performing models used data assimilation and had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.77 (95% confidence interval 0.7665, 0.7734) and mean average precision of 0.6258 (0.6206, 0.6311). We show that data assimilation extracts knowledge from mechanistic models of glucose metabolism to infer future glycemic states from limited clinical data. This method can provide a pathway to predict long-term, post-surgical glycemic states by estimating the contributions of insulin resistance and limitations of insulin secretion to pre-operative glucose metabolism.

Long-Term Results of Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding in French adolescents: The Utmost Importance of Follow-Up

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the long-term follow-up (FU) and effectivity of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) in a French adolescent cohort.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed the results of LAGB at our institution. We collected information on FU, adjustable gastric banding (AGB) status, weight-related parameters, and comorbidity at multiple timepoints.

RESULTS

Fifty-six patients (77% female) with a mean age of 16.5 years and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 45 kg/m2 underwent LAGB over a period of 12 years. The mean postpediatric FU was 23 months. FU decreased progressively from 96% at 3 years to 54% and 29% at 6 and 9 years, respectively. The loss to FU was 39% at last contact. AGB was removed in 17 patients (30%) and 12 patients (21%) underwent a second bariatric procedure. Mean BMI decreased by 11 kg/m2 at last contact (P < 0.001). The prevalence of most comorbidities also decreased significantly after 3 years. The mean excess weight loss (to reach a BMI of 25 kg/m2) was 47% during the first year postsurgery and further increased to 55% at last contact.

CONCLUSION

Overall, AGB resulted in significant weight loss; however, the increase in heterogeneity suggests that LAGB is more effective in some individuals than in others in the long-term. This study confirmed that LAGB is a valuable bariatric procedure in adolescents, either as a long term-term efficient or bridging method that would be replaced at the time of transition to adult care. The importance of a standardized long-term follow-up should always be emphasized.

A 5-Year Follow-up in Children and Adolescents Undergoing One-Anastomosis Gastric Bypass (OAGB) at a European IFSO Excellence Center (EAC-BS)

BACKGROUND

The children and adolescent population with obesity has increased worldwide, both in developing areas and in developed countries. Consequently, the prevalence of morbid obesity among this population has also increased, leading to an exponential growth of bariatric approaches in this population. Many surgeons fear eventual nutritional sequelae after malabsorptive approaches and prefer restrictive or mixed procedures.

METHODS

A retrospective review of all the morbidly obese patients between 13 and 19 years, undergoing a one-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) as bariatric procedure between 2004 and 2012, was performed.

RESULTS

A total of 39 patients were included, 8 males (20.5%) and 31 females (79.5%), with a mean age of 17.8 ± 2 years (range 13-19 years). Mean preoperative weight was 114.3 ± 20.4 kg and mean BMI 42.2 ± 5.9 kg/m². Preoperative comorbidities include only type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in 7.9% of the patients, hypertension in 10.3%, and dyslipidemia in 23.1%. Five years after surgery, mean BMI was 25.9 ± 5.3 kg/m² and total weight loss 32.1 ± 15.7%. Remission rate of T2DM, hypertension and dyslipidemia was 100%. All the patients received multivitamin and vitamin D supplementation. Anemia secondary to iron deficiency occurred in one female, requiring intravenous iron supplementation during 1 year and later on oral supplementation.

CONCLUSIONS

OAGB is a valid alternative for long-term weight loss and remission of comorbidities in childhood and adolescence. No cases of malnutrition or growth disorders were observed.

Break up the band: Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding-associated Discitis and Osteomyelitis

Obesity is an epidemic that adversely affects millions of Americans. In 2017, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 93.3 million Americans suffer from obesity.1 Many individuals have undergone laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) procedures in order to lose weight. The procedure is thought to be safe with complication rates reported as low as 1.6% following surgery.2 We present a case of LAGB-associated discitis and osteomyelitis 20 years after placement and examine the current literature on the complication rates of bariatric surgery along with the rare injuries following LAGB placement.