The prospective experience of a maxillofacial surgeon with the percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy technique

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by Dr Trevor Watts.

Abstract

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) may be safely performed by a maxillofacial surgeon trained to use it.

Main

Avery C, Shenoy S et al. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2008; 37: 140–148

Patients with head and neck malignancy are often fed via PEG when nutritional support is required for more than 2-4 weeks. PEG is often performed by a gastroenterologist or a gastrointestinal or general surgeon. Over a 7 year period, PEG insertion was attempted 225 consecutive times on 206 patients (mostly because of malignancy) by a maxillofacial surgeon.

Median PEG time was 10 min, and insertion was 97% successful. Major complications occurred on 7 occasions and minor complications on 26. Mortality at 30 days was 6%, but was not from PEG. Median duration of the PEG was 337 days, and was significantly less after surgery alone. The authors consider the complication rates similar to those reported in gastroenterological literature.