Is surgery the answer to curb your child's weight gain?

Med page Today reports that stomach suturing may be the answer to reduce teen obesity. Reports from a pilot study indicate that a minimally invasive stomach reduction procedure helps obese teens lose large amounts of weight safely. A new procedure that is performed orally by a gasrtoenterologist, passes an endoscope down the patients throat which in turn, reduces the patients stomach and thereby restricts food intake.
Roberto Fogel, M.D., of Hospital de Clinicas Caracas in Venezuela reports that 12 obese adolescents (ages 14-17) who underwent this procedure lost a mean of 62.2% of their excess body weight within six months.
The procedure is minimally invasive with no complications, it said to take about 40 minutes and patients may leave within a few hours after the procedure.

The sutures are placed such that food passes only through the top part of the stomach on its way to the small intestine. "You feel full after maybe 10 bites," said Dr. Fogel.

It sounds like a great way to approach a very common problem," commented Mark H. DeLegge, M.D., a gastroenterologist and nutrition specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, who chaired the session at which the study was presented.

In theory this procedure sounds like the miracle cure for obesity, but does this really solve the root of the problem?