The Prevalence of Co-morbidities in Adult and Adolescent Bariatric Surgery Candidates

Severe obesity is often associated with co-morbid conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and obstructive sleep apnea. Successful weight loss can result in remission of these conditions. The authors retrospectively examined the co-morbidity profiles of pre-operative gastric sleeve adult patients from the MBSAQIP database with subjects from our adolescent bariatric program. Five conditions were compared: hypertension (HTN), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), dyslipidemia (DL), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Patients were matched by gender and body mass index (BMI). The prevalence of each condition was statistically more significant in the adult cohort. Successful weight loss at an earlier age may reduce the prevalence of these co-morbid conditions.