Lap band surgery: for adults only?

TORONTO – Twenty-two-year-old Kori is slim – as in supermodel-like thin. She weighs about half (130 lbs or 59 kg) of what she did just three years ago, when at 19, she had lap band surgery.

Kori doesn’t hold back on how she believes it’s changed her. "My life has done a 180. I am happier, I have more friends now than I did before, I’m more sociable and I don’t hide anymore."

Dr. Dennis Hong at the CIBO Clinic in Toronto, where Kori had the surgery done, explains that a lap band is similar to a belt around your pants. "It goes around the top of your stomach and we can adjust the band to make it tighter or loser, and it restricts the amount you can eat." Patients who’ve had the procedure can expect to lose a significant amount of weight. "Most people will lose one to two pounds a week, so in a month you are talking four to six pounds. In a year, you are talking in the order of 30 to 40 per cent of their excess weight."

At the CIBO Clinic though, doctors won’t do the surgery on anyone under 18, as per general guidelines followed in the U.S. and Canada.

But Dr. Chris Cobourn at the Surgical Weight Loss Centre in Mississauga sees it differently. "We will operate on patients over the age of 14. The adolescent age group – meaning 14 to 18 – is a special group. We need to be very certain, in that population that we are dealing with, the patient is very motivated to be successful in the program. We want to make sure that it isn’t somehow others, be it their parents or friends, that are driving (the patient) to consider this option."

He admits it is controversial and other experts suggest lap band surgery on teenagers should be approached with the utmost caution.

Dr. Arya Sharma, director of the Canadian Obesity Network, says it should only be considered as a last resort – adding it doesn’t address the issues that caused the weight gain in the first place. "Those are things that also need to be looked at very carefully and need to be addressed. Simply doing the operation is not enough," he says.

As for Kori, she says thanks to the surgery she can now pursue her goal of becoming a police officer. She says looking back – she would have had her surgery years earlier if she could have. "Because it would have changed my life. I think being young and not being able to do what your friends do really ruins everything for yourself," she says.

Kori admits surgery isn’t for everyone, but encourages obese teens to try to do what they can to help themselves. "Don’t feel bad for yourself. Get up, motivate yourself, and go do something."