A local news website in Kitsap, Washington just ran a story about a 12-year-old girl who underwent in gastric banding surgery (using the LAP-BAND System). According to the mother, none of the U.S. bariatric surgeons they contacted wanted anything to do with Lap-Band surgery on a 12-year-old, so they went to Tijuana, Mexico to have the surgery.
We have blogged about bariatric surgery in teens in the past, but this is clearly the youngest patient of Lap-Band surgery I have ever read about.
Story excerpt:
A year before, having failed all attempts to lose weight, Marsha had traveled to a doctor in Tijuana, Mexico who specializes in surgically fitting small-saline filled life preservers around the tops of stomachs, a device called an adjustable gastric band. Like gastric bypass surgery, the procedure is meant to reduce the amount of food that can be eaten. And unlike a gastric bypass, it’s reversible.
Publisher’s note: The owners of this website do not condone or condemn weight loss surgery in patients so young. We remain neutral on the subject and merely gather information for your own personal research. Â