SURVIVAL OF PATIENTS WHO UNDERWENT PERCUTANEOUS ENDOSCOPIC GASTROSTOMY TUBE PLACEMENT IN THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: FOUR YEARS OF FOLLOW-UP

Aims:

We compared Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients' survival to the survival of patients hospitalized in the General Medical Ward (GMW) after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement in a tertiary hospital in Athens, Greece.

Methods:

Using the hospital records, we retrospectively identified consecutive patients who underwent PEG tube placement and we retrieved their demographic, clinical and survival data (overall, 28^th day, 3months and 6months mortality).

Results:

Between January 1^st, 2015 and September 10^th 2018, 116 patients [70 (60.3%) men, 63.4 ± 19.5 years old] underwent PEG tube placement. The 28 (24.1%) ICU patients [21, (75%) men] were significantly younger compared to those hospitalized in the GMW (55.4 ± 23.4 vs. 70.1 ± 16.8 years, p = 0.001). As compared to GMW, similar number (9 vs. 8) of patients with head injury, and significantly fewer (p = 0.01) patients with neurological diseases/psychomotor retardation (12 vs. 34), dementia (5 vs. 32) and head and neck cancer (2 vs. 14) were hospitalized in the ICU. Survival data after PEG tube placement were available for 112/116 (96.5%) patients. Overall the median survival was similar between patients hospitalized in the ICU and GMW [135; 95% CI (37.9 – 232.1) vs. 60; 95% CI (3.7 – 116.2) days, p = 0.17). 28th day (95% vs. 77.5%, p = 0.07), 3months (75% vs. 67.2%, p = 0.36) and 6months (65% vs. 57.1%, p = 0.37) survival rates were also similar between the two groups. During the follow-up period, PEG tube was removed in 3 ICU and 4 GMW patients, following restoration of the swallowing function.

Conclusions:

Survival after PEG tube placement is similar among ICU and GMW patients despite their different epidemiological and clinical characteristics.