Hormonal responses and test meal intake among obese teenagers before and after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Background: Relatively little is known about changes in eating behavior or hormonal responses to food after bariatric surgery in adolescents.

Objective: This study compared eating behavior and hormones among adolescents in a bariatric surgery program with those in nonoverweight control adolescents and evaluated changes before and after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB).

Design: Fasting leptin, peptide YY (PYY), and ghrelin concentrations were obtained, and postprandial ghrelin and PYY area under the curve (AUC) were assessed after a single-item breakfast. Intake from an ad libitum lunchtime multi-item meal was measured.

Results: Compared with controls (n = 9), all presurgical candidates (n = 20) had significantly greater fasting leptin, lower fasting ghrelin, and lower AUC ghrelin but similar PYY and AUC PYY. Preoperative candidates did not differ from controls in total energy consumed during the test meal. Postoperatively, among the 11 participants with data both before and after surgery, BMI (in kg/m(2)) decreased by 3.5 (P < 0.001), significantly less energy was consumed in the test meal, and a smaller number of foods were selected. AUC ghrelin and PYY did not significantly change before or after LAGB.

Conclusions: Few significant short-term changes were observed in appetitive hormones after LAGB. It is unclear whether objective measures of eating behavior will prove useful in evaluating the impact of bariatric surgery on outcomes. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as CT00764127.