Background/aim: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is a preferable way of nutritional support in patients with normal gastrointestinal function that can not be fed via oral way due to several causes. The aim of this study is to analyze the association between the nutritional status of the cases and early PEG complications.
Material and methods: One hundred and twenty eight PEG applied cases in Inonu University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Gastroenterology between August 2003 - December 2007 that could not be fed orally at least for the last four weeks were included to the study. The cases were determined in terms of malnutrition before the procedure using following criteria: body mass index (BMI)5% within the last three months. All the complications within 30 days after the PEG procedure were recorded. Additionally, the age, sex, functional status, anti-biotherapy, and duration of the hospitalization before the PEG were examined.
Results: Eighty four patients (65.6%) had findings of malnutrition before the PEG application. Early complications seen in patients with malnutrition were significantly higher than the patients without malnutrition (41.7% vs. 18.2%, p = 0.04). Wound infection surrounding the PEG tube site was the most common early complication. Mortality rate within the first month was not different between the groups. Early complications were significantly increased with hospitalization more than ten days before the PEG procedure and malnutrition in the multivariate analysis (OR:2.74; P=0.04 and OR:2.70; p=0.04, respectively).
Conclusion: Malnutrition increases the early complications of PEG procedure independent from the underlying diseases and functional status of the patients. Hence, PEG must be performed before the existence of malnutrition in patients who cannot take orally and expected not to be fed orally for a long time and the cases with malnutrition should be followed closely for development of the possible PEG complications.
Key Words: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, Complications, Malnutrition.
|
