A new study finds that bariatric surgery is a relatively safe option for adolescents who are overweight or obese

A new study finds that obesity surgery for teens is safer for adolescents than it is for adults.

In their study researchers compared post-sergical complications in 55,192 patients aged 18 and older who had various kinds of bariatric surgery for weight loss with those
in 309 obese patients ages 12 to 18 who underwent the same procedures.

The study's lead author Dr. Esteban Varela of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said "there's always been the concern of doing big operations in kids precisely because of the potential complications."

Complications that were reported in teens who underwent weight loss procedures included: wound infections, reopening of the surgical site, bleeding, pneumonia, heart issues and other problems. Despite these problems occuring Varela insists that for morbidly obese teens who have exhausted all other avenues of weight loss with no success, surgery is a relatively safe option.

The amount of Americans that are overweight or obese is rapidly growing with a growing percentage of them in the 12 to 18 age group. Weight loss surgery is becoming a more popular choice for people who are overweight due to its ability to reduce the size of the person's stomach so they will feel full after eating less than they would normally eat.

Last year, approximately 177,600 Americans had bariatric surgery.