Children in Norway may be offered bariatric surgery

Eating hamburger.Photo: Sara Johannessen / SCANPIX NB! Modellklarert

A steadily increasing number of children and adolescents become overweight. Now bariatric surgery for this group may become a permanent service from the Norwegian health care system.

A total of 29 children between 15 and 18 years have since 2010 received bariatric surgery as part of the research project 4XL at the Center for morbid obesity in Vestfold. Now this arrangement will be made permanent and this will be offered to children with morbid obesity, according to P4.

– For some adolescents, obesity has become such a serious problem that leads to diabetes and high blood pressure ,that you can not help them in other ways,  Shamir Lekhal, chief physician for children and youth at the Center for morbid obesity at Vestfold Hospita, saysl.

It is far from straightforward to implement such an operation on children and young adults, and over half of those who applied for this were rejected.
– We have received 80 applications, some of the children are are no more than 13 years old. But over 50 of these have been rejected because they are not well enough prepared mentally to undergo surgery, said Lekhal.

– The risk of suicide and substance abuse increases slightly. Out of those known to suffer from mental illness before the operation, adolescents are also somewhat more likely to handle the surgery poorly than adults, the chief physician explains.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today