I'm a pediatric nurse who has worked with surgical patients on the floor for about 6 years and I've never seen a patient get weight loss surgery. However, I was doing a CEU last night and I read a fascinating case study that has got me thinking.
In the case study, an 8 year old morbidly obese patient with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (and some other comorbidities associated with being obese, such as pain, OSA, etc.) had weight loss surgery performed after other interventions failed to help her debilitating headaches. I believe they had tried to get her to lose weight naturally for approximately 2 years with no results. Concern for permanent vision loss was also a factor considered by the hospital's ethics committee. Prior to the weight loss surgery, they had done a Chiari decompression as well as multiple therapeutic LPs. Post-op course was complicated by emesis, acid reflux, and constipation, but by a year post-op, the patient was relieved of those symptoms, was off her CPAP at night, and was at the 35th percentile for weight, rather than 99th. She also was completely relieved of her headaches.
Considering the amount of obese pediatric patients and how that amount is rising year after year, I'm wondering if something like this might become more common. (Obviously only in severe cases where the patients health is immediately impacted and other measures haven't worked.)
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