Two-year-old Saudi toddler has gastric bypass surgery

A two-year-old morbidly obese who hails from Saudi Arabia has become the youngest person worldwide to undergo bariatric surgery.           

The parents of the toddler who weighed 72 lbs and had a Body Mass Index of 41 sought help because he suffered sleep apnea.           

"Two attempts to control his weight by following a diet failed," said the medics who carried out the bariatric surgery in an article posted in the International Journal of Surgery Case Reports.         
When the toddler was first presented to an endocrinologist at 14 months, he weighed 46 lbs but after a four-month dieting, his weight increased by 17 pounds.  

The doctors from Prince Sultan Military Medical City at Riyadh were incapable of determining whether the parents of the child followed the diet plan.                

Another attempt at dieting did not yield any positive results and when the child reached 72 lbs, doctors decided to perform surgery.

Consequently, surgeons carried out a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy on the boy. The child lost 15 per cent of his body's weight within two months and two years after the 2010 surgery, his weight decreased from 72 lbs to 52 lbs and his BMI of 24 was within the normal range.             
In Australia, bariatric surgery is not recommended for children under 14.