Under new initiative, Canadian teens who are severely or morbidly obese mainly because of medical conditions will be offered weight-loss surgery as a treatment option.

Some kids aged between 12 and 17 years, who are obese because of brain tumors or other similar health conditions like complications that arise from Type 2 diabetes, will be offered the option of undergoing minimally invasive kind of weight-loss surgery at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

On Friday, the hospital announced that it would be the first ever medical center in Canada to offer this surgical treatment approach to parents of children who meet some previously set criteria for complex severe obesity.

Estimates say that about 3% Canadian kids and teens suffer from obesity of the kind, which means having a BMI of greater than the 5th percentile for their age and gender.

The proposed surgery involves shrinking the size of the stomach so that food intake can be limited.