Six-year-old is youngest Indian to undergo bariatric weight loss surgery

A six-year-old boy, who weighed more than 60 kilograms, underwent bariatric surgery at a Indore hospital in Madhya Pradesh, becoming the youngest patient in the country to go under the scalpel for weight loss, doctors attending on him said today. “The surgery was performed about a month back after which the patient’s weight decreased by seven kgs,” said Dr Mohit Bhandari, Bariatric Surgeon at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS). [caption id=“attachment_985017” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: Reuters[/caption] Bhandari claimed that the boy was the youngest patient in the country to undergo this kind of surgery on June 19. The boy weighed 60 kgs and his BMI (Body Mass Index) was about 50 before the surgery. He used to face breathing problems, sleep apnea and hormonal disorders due to it, the doctor said. In bariatric surgery, the size of the stomach is reduced by removing a part which generates hormones not conducive for metabolism. According to Bhandari, the boy is expected to lose another 25-30 kgs of weight in the next six months. Twenty percent children in the country fall in ‘obese’ category and by 2015 this figure will cross 30 per cent, he said. PTI