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Obesity in children: bariatric surgery
Dexter Canoy1, TienYu Owen Yang
1University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Insights
Surgical interventions for childhood obesity are unclear. This systematic overview evaluated bariatric surgery
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Endocrinology
- Bariatric Surgery
- Public Health
Background:
- Childhood obesity prevalence remains high globally.
- Lifestyle interventions are standard for pediatric weight management.
- Efficacy and safety of surgical interventions for childhood obesity are not well-established.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review the effects of surgical interventions for treating childhood obesity.
- To assess the effectiveness and safety of bariatric surgery in obese children.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a systematic overview of existing literature.
- Searched major databases including Medline, Embase, and The Cochrane Library up to August 2014.
- Screened 67 records and evaluated 48 full publications, including two systematic reviews.
Main Results:
- The overview focused on two comparisons: bariatric surgery versus no intervention, and different types of bariatric surgery against each other.
- Data on effectiveness and safety were categorized for these comparisons.
Conclusions:
- The systematic overview provides insights into the efficacy of bariatric surgery for childhood obesity.
- Further research may be needed to clarify the role of surgical interventions in managing pediatric obesity.
Introduction:
The prevalence of childhood obesity in the UK and in many countries worldwide remains high. Behavioural interventions to modify lifestyle, such as diet and physical activity, usually form part of weight management strategies for obese children. Whether or not surgical interventions are effective and safe in treating childhood obesity is unclear.
Methods And Outcomes:
We conducted a systematic overview, aiming to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of surgical interventions for the treatment of childhood obesity? We searched Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to August 2014 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically; please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this overview).
Results:
At this update, after deduplication and removal of conference abstracts, 67 records were screened for inclusion in the overview. Appraisal of titles and abstracts led to the exclusion of 19 studies and the further review of 48 full publications. Of the 48 full articles evaluated, two systematic reviews were included at this update.
Conclusions:
In this systematic overview, we categorised the efficacy for two comparisons based on information about the effectiveness and safety of bariatric surgery versus no intervention and different types of bariatric surgery versus each other.
