CORPUS CHRISTI — Driscoll Children’s Hospital bariatric program officials plan to start offering lap-band surgery for morbidly obese teens and young adults later this month.

Officials believe it will be the first hospital in Texas to do so.

Officials are awaiting patient-insurance approval before moving forward with the first surgery, said Sam Carrell, bariatric program coordinator at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.

Houston’s Texas Children’s Hospital offers youths gastric bypass surgery, which involves stapling the stomach to create a small pouch. But for lap-band surgery, which entails placing an adjustable band near the top of the stomach to restrict food intake, Carrell has heard about children going as far as Denver, Chicago and New York.

Carrell said her staff is being extremely careful about selecting candidates for lap-band surgery because the Food and Drug Administration recommends the lap-band procedure only for those 18 and older.

Candidates must show they’re committed to not just the surgery but also what’s required afterward: regular exercise and healthy eating, she said. “It is a last resort for children,” Carrell said. “It shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

The estimated $15,000 cost includes surgery, presurgical testing such as blood work, and two months of post-surgical follow-up visits, Carrell said. Marissa Galvan, 18, is one of 29 young adults and adolescents awaiting lap-band procedures at Driscoll.

Galvan, who weighs about 350 pounds, plans on having her surgery in six months after struggling with her weight since she was 9. Doctors have told the Robstown teenager that she’s prediabetic and has high blood pressure, which physicians say could subside after surgery. “I don’t want that in the future,” she said.

“It’s going to be a whole life change,” Galvan said. “It’s not magically going to make you lose weight. It’s a tool.” Carrell said giving teens this tool is important because when done early it can prevent or delay serious conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, Carrell said. “We want to improve their quality of life and their health,” she said.

Dr. Evan Nadler, director of minimally invasive pediatric surgery at New York University’s School of Medicine, said that it’s not clear why the FDA recommends the surgery only for adults but that it’s likely because the FDA up until this point has had data only on adults. There’s no conclusive data to understand how the procedure affects a child long-term, Nadler said, but research is under way. Nadler heads up an FDA-approved trial at NYU’s Langone Medical Center in Manhattan that has placed adjustable bands in about 100 morbidly obese teenagers since 2005.

The trial is to help determine the safety and effectiveness of lap-band surgery for adolescents, which Nadler said has been successful for about 90 percent of the teens who’ve stayed with the program. One of the recent NYU studies, published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery in 2007, showed that patients lost about 50 percent of their excess weight a year after surgery. Some children had complications such as mild hair loss, hernias and wound infection, according to the study.

But Nadler said complications, which can occur with any surgical procedure, usually are remedied easily. Nadler said the NYU studies have found that young people’s bodies are able to gain better health sooner than older patients and prevent weight-related conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease. “They’re young enough to heal themselves,” he said. “The damage that’s done isn’t irreversible.”

Lap-Band Surgery

Driscoll Children’s Hospital plans to offer lap-band surgery for 14- to 21-year-olds by as soon as late June.

Information: 694-4714

Who is eligible

Candidates must: -- Have a five-year history of obesity, and have to have been unsuccessful at physician-guided weight loss for at least six months. -- Be at least six months into puberty. Boys need to be closer to 15 years old because of maturity levels. -- Go through presurgical testing such as a psychological evaluation, a sleep study, a pulmonary function test and lab work to determine any underlying conditions, such as diabetes. Source: Driscoll Children’s Hospital bariatric program

BY THE NUMBERS

66

Percentage of overweight or obese children and teens nationwide

70

Percentage of overweight or obese children and teens in South Texas

1 of 3

Ratio of morbidly obese children in the nation

40 to 49

Body mass index, ratio of weight to height, considered as morbidly obese.

As an example, if you’re 5 feet tall and weigh between 204 to 250 pounds, you are considered morbidly obese. If you’re 6 feet tall and weigh between 294 to 361 pounds, you are considered morbidly obese.

Reference: Driscoll Children’s Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention