Case reportClinical case report: psychosocial issues in adolescent bariatric surgery
Section snippets
Case report
The patient was a 16-year-old girl of Puerto Rican descent who presented for bariatric surgery to a large comprehensive bariatric surgery program in an academic medical center early in April 2007. Her weight was 325 lb, and her BMI was 64 kg/m2. At her initial evaluation with the bariatric surgery program, she had the following co-morbidities: hypertension, asthma, pseudotumor cerebri, severe scoliosis, obstructive sleep apnea (requiring bi-level positive airway pressure treatment), narcolepsy,
Discussion
The presented case illustrates some of the challenges in determining an adolescent's appropriateness for bariatric surgery. From a physical perspective, the patient was clearly an appropriate surgery candidate—not only was her BMI well above 40 kg/m2, but she also had several significant obesity-related co-morbidities. Without surgery, her weight would have likely continued to increase and her health would have deteriorated as she grew older. Instead, surgery resulted in resolution of the
Disclosures
Dr. Sarwer discloses that he has consulting relationships with the following companies: Allergan, BaroNova, Enteromedics, and Ethicon Endo-Surgery.
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Cited by (0)
Supported, in part, by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant R01-DK080738) to D. B. Sarwer.