FRIDAY, May 17, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Adolescents and adults who undergo gastric bypass surgery have similar weight loss at five years after surgery, according to a study published online May 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the Combating Childhood Obesity Summit, held on May 16 in Houston.

Thomas H. Inge, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Colorado in Denver, and colleagues assessed the health effects of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in a cohort of 161 adolescents and a cohort of 296 adults. Five years after surgery, outcomes were compared with regard to weight and coexisting conditions between the cohorts.

At five years after surgery, the researchers found no significant difference in the percent weight change between adolescents and adults (−26 versus −29 percent). Compared with adults, adolescents were significantly more likely to have remission of type 2 diabetes (86 versus 53 percent; risk ratio, 1.27) and hypertension (68 versus 41 percent; risk ratio, 1.51) after surgery. In the five years after surgery, 1.9 and 1.8 percent of adolescents and adults died. Adolescents had a significantly higher rate of abdominal reoperations (19 versus 10 reoperations per 500 person-years).

“Longer-term follow-up and further research will be important for refinement of the risks and benefits of bariatric surgery in adolescents,” the authors write.

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