2-year-old Saudi Arabian Boy Weighing 33kg Underwent A Drastic Weight Loss Surgery

A two-and-a-half-year-old morbidly obese boy has had drastic weight loss surgery.

The Saudi Arabian toddler weighed 33kg and had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 41 before he was operated on.

It was decided the little boy would have a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy as his weight was causing sleep apnea and his legs to bow, the International Journal of Surgery reports.

The procedure was carried out at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City in Riyadh.

The surgery for the child was deemed a success and his progress was followed for two years after surgery, with his weight dropping to 24.

Prior to this, the youngest child to undergo the procedure was a five-year-old, also from Saudi Arabia.

The NHS offers surgical weight loss procedures only to those suffering with potentially life-threatening obesity, and when other treatments, including lifestyle changes have not worked.

During a sleeve gastrectomy, the surgeon cuts into the abdomen before removing the left side of the stomach.

It can reduce the stomach’s volume by up to 75% and is usually performing using keyhole surgery.

The remaining part of the stomach is pulled upwards and resealed with stitches, creating a much smaller, longer stomach in the shape of a banana.

According to the report, the two-and-a-half-year-old boy was of a normal weight until he reached the age of six months.

As he became larger, his parents eventually sought the advice of doctors. The patient had no family history of morbid obesity or genetic abnormalities and a CT scan of his brain showed no other causes of obesity.

The child was put on a diet but it is uncertain whether his parents complied fully “mainly due to the different socio cultural habits and the absence of the practice of calculating the calorific value of the diet.”

The case has been described as “shocking” and “very unusual”, by one expert.

"It's rather like the other day when we saw one of our spacecrafts going out of our solar system into the dark regions of space, it's going into unknown territory," said obesity expert adjunct professor Paul Zimmett, from Australia’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Speaking to News.com.au, he added: "We have no idea what effect this may have on the child's growth and unless he has proper follow up he may suffer vitamin deficiencies."


Source: huffingtonpost.co.uk