New Data Will Help Define Teens Most Appropriate for Bariatric Surgery
A pioneering multi-year, multicenter study on teens who undergo weight loss surgery will help to better inform parents and pediatricians about appropriate treatment options for extremely obese teenagers. Based at Cincinnati Children's, the Teen- Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (Teen-LABS) is the first and largest prospective study of adolescents who choose bariatric surgery.
The study is headed by Thomas Inge, MD, PhD, associate professor of surgery and pediatrics and surgical director of the Comprehensive Weight Management Center at Cincinnati Children's. The project's goal is to gather standardized, measurable, credible outcomes data with good short- and long-term patient follow-up on the growing number of teens who have bariatric surgery.
Teen-LABS is the teenage version of LABS, the nation's largest, most organized outcomes research study on adults who undergo bariatric surgery. Teen-LABS is funded by a multi-million dollar grant over five years from the National Institutes of Health. The study includes data from Cincinnati Children's and four additional clinical centers around the country.
Bariatric surgery patient Keely Kark (right) and her mom. Following her surgery, Keely received long-term care and emotional support from the Surgical Weight Loss Program for Teens.
Teen-LABS researchers will collect the same measures in teens that LABS is collecting in adults. Over two years, they will establish a baseline and record changes at six, 12 and 24 months. Measures will include weight, percentage of body fat, cardiovascular risk factors, sleep apnea, diabetes indicators, depressive symptoms, quality of life (using pediatric-specific measures) and nutritional status. Investigators plan to enroll 200 adolescents and compare their data to 200 adults who had bariatric surgery after being obese since their teenage years.
Researchers hope to gain more insight into whether it makes sense to perform bariatric surgery for appropriate teens before obesity ravages the body. Adult patients who undergo weight loss surgery often see a reversal or resolution of many medical problems, but many health problems like sleep apnea, heart disease and diabetes may only partially reverse when surgery is done in adulthood. Among other issues, investigators will be looking to see if diabetes, with its chronic and accumulating costs, can be more completely reversed by intervening earlier in the extremely obese.
All age groups are seeing an increase in extreme obesity, but it is particularly prevalent in children and adolescents. Cincinnati Children's, the first pediatric center to develop a weight loss surgery program specifically targeted to teens, has shown that bariatric surgery is an effective tool for reversing extreme obesity. The Teen-LABS study will provide data so parents and pediatricians can accurately and prospectively assess a patient's risks – and ultimately, predict the teens who are best suited for bariatric surgery.
