Laparoscopic gastrostomy - Results of 121 patients over 7 years

Laparoscopic gastrostomy was introduced in various technical variants 7 ye rs ago However, larger series and long-term results of these new methods ar e still lacking. In a prospective study, laparoscopic gastrostomies were pe rformed by two institutions in 121 patients (88 men, 33 women: mean age, 58 .3 +/-: 11.16 years [range, 24-82]) with esophageal stenosis in locally adv anced hypopharyngeal or oropharyn-geal carcinoma, incurable esophageal carc inoma, and cerebral dysphagia. Operating time was 40-160) minutes. Procedur e-related mortality was 0% early mortality was 1.6%. the overall intraopera tive complication rate was 7.4%, iind the early complication rate was 9.9%. During a cumulative usage time of 1086.2 months, the complication rate in 1000 usage days was 0.8, and the stoma infection rate was (0.65. Laparoscop ic gastrostomy is a reliable method for safe and economic establishment of enteral nutrition, even in patients for wham long-term nutrition by gastros tomy is expected.