Weight loss surgery quadruples in under-25s

The number of weight-loss operations carried out on people under the age of 25 has quadrupled in the past three years.

NHS figures show that 210 weight loss operations were carried out on under-25s between 2009 and 2010, compared with just 55 in the years 2006-7.

Thirty-four of the surgical procedures were carried out on patients under the age of 19. However, more than one procedure may have been performed on an obese patient.

The procedures included fitting a gastric band around the top portion of the stomach, making the person feeling full after eating small amounts of food, and gastric bypass surgery, where a small stomach pouch is created restricting the amount of food absorbed by the body.

Bariatric or weight loss surgery is generally only available on the NHS to those who are morbidly obese, with a body mass index of 40 or more, and where all other attempts at weight loss have failed.

Obese patients with a lower BMI, but with serious health problems which may improve after weight loss, may also qualify for surgery on the NHS.

Around 16 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls under the age of 16 in England are now classified as obese with a BMI of 30 or over, compared to around 25 per cent of adults, NHS figures from 2008 show.

But weight loss surgery should not be regarded as an easy option for weight loss. A report by BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat discovered that many under-25's are not given the support they need before and after weight loss surgery.

Twenty year old Corina Ellison was given a gastric bypass six months after she started binge eating and had become obese.

But because her emotional attachment to food has not been addressed, she is still binge eating.

She told Newsbeat: "Afterwards I'll get really ill, I'll get tired, I'll feel like I'm going to faint.

"I feel let down, like they've given me this operation then left me to deal with it by myself."

Dr Samantha Scholtz, an NHS psychiatrist, told the programme that NHS aftercare was "patchy."

This article was published on Mon 19 September 2011