For most children to reach or maintain a healthy weight, the best advice available is to eat right and exercise. This means eating more vegetables, less greasy, fatty foods and getting at least an hour of physical activity a day.
For some children, this advice is not enough. Despite repeated efforts to diet or because of other health concerns, they have reached a weight that is not only uncomfortable, it is actually dangerous to their health. A child who reaches a BMI of 40 percent or greater is considered morbidly obese and is at risk of developing diabetes, depression, apnea and hypertension. Because of this, more immediate solutions may be necessary.
To address this, the adolescent bariatric program at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children offers a lap-band gastric banding procedure. AIDHC was approved by the FDA to offer gastric banding as an Investigational Device Exemption study two years ago. We are the only pediatric study of this kind in our region, open to adolescents 14-17 years of age. Dr. George Datto, III, Medical Director of the program stresses that, to participate, the child must be physically and emotionally mature with good family support systems and willing to commit to life-long lifestyle and behavioral changes. “Surgery is not a cure, but a piece of a comprehensive program,” says Dr. Kirk Reichard, Clinical Director, Division of General Surgery.
“Since obesity is a disease, we take a comprehensive, disease-based approach to the management and treatment of these children,” says Dr. Sandra Hassink, MD, Director, Weight Management. “It is only when all other treatments have been exhausted, and a child’s medical health is threatened, are they considered as a candidate for this study.”
As a result of this study, duPont Hospital has performed gastric band surgeries on 21 teens. The total combined weight loss of all the adolescents is over 1,000 pounds, with three teens losing more than 100 pounds. Equally as exciting is that most of the comorbidities of diabetes, depression, gastroesophageal reflux and hypertension which required medications are now resolved.
For more information on duPont Hospital’s adolescent bariatric program please call 1-800-606-9956.