Complications of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube applied to endoscopy unit patients

Abstract

Background: In patients who find difficulty in eating or who have lost the ability to swallow food, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is the preferred method of long-term tube feeding. Although PEG is a usually safe technique, several complications sometimes arise.
Objective: To study the advantage and disadvantage of PEG to improve the maneuver and increase the success rate by identification of outcome complications of PEG and their management and evaluation of the efficacy of PEG in improving patient's lifestyles.
Patients and methods: This retrospective, single-center study was done on 60 patients who needed PEG tube in the endoscopy unit of internal medicine department, Zagazig University Hospital during the period from December 2020 to May 2021. All patients were subjected to complete relevant evaluation before the study in the form of complete history taking, clinical examination, lab investigation, pelvi-abdominal ultrasound, multislice CT or MRI to assess advanced cancer or peritoneal metastasis and endoscopic examination for outlet patency.
Results: A total of 16 patients (26.67 %) had PEG-related complications. Fourteen (23.3 %) patients had minor complications. The most common minor complication recorded was insertion site infection that found in 5 (8.3 %) patients. Two (3.3%) patients in our study reported major PEG-related complications. One (1.7%) patient had massive hematemesis and melena and one (1.7%) patient reported buried bumper syndrome.
Conclusion: We concluded that PEG had received global acceptability as a safe approach for administering enteral feeding in patients with inadequate oral intake for more than 28 days and a functioning GI system.