PERCUTANEOUS ENDOSCOPIC GASTROSTOMY LONG- TERM ENTERAL TUBE-FEEDING

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy is the preferred method for admini stration of longterm enteral tube feeding. Data on long-term follow-up s are rare. We report the long-term outcome and the complication rates after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in 165 patients (mean age 7 0 years). The most common indications were neurologicaly-related swall owing disorders. The data were collected prospectively. Percutaneous e ndoscopic gastrostomy in patients was technically successful in 164 pa tients (99%), with a mean implantation time of 12 minutes. The procedu re-related morbidity was 1.2%. The mean length of percutaneous endosco pic gastrostomy feeding was 26 weeks (1-98) for the Charriere 9-tube a nd 29 weeks (1-158) for Charriere 15-tubes. There were 12% tube-relate d and 15% feeding-related late complications, the main ones being loca l skin infections (7.3%) and gastric perforations (1.2%). The procedur e-related mortality was 0.6%. We conclude that endoscopically assisted percutaneous gastrostomy is the procedure of choice for long-term ent eral nutrition in patients requiring tube-feeding.