Longevity of silicone and polyurethane catheters in long-term enteral feeding via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy

As percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is often used for many months or years, the longevity of the feeding tubes plays an important role in the global outcome and costs of PEG.

A retrospective study to evaluate the longevity of silicone and polyurethane PEG catheters.

The records of 297 patients who were fed via PEG for over 90 days were evaluated. The material of the PEG catheter, duration of follow-up, local complications, need to remove PEG because of tube deterioration or local complications and time from PEG placement to PEG removal were recorded and compared.

Two hundred and twenty-eight patients had polyurethane and 69 had silicone PEG catheters. The follow-up ranged from 116 to 3207 days for the polyurethane group and from 98 to 1861 days for the silicone group. No differences were observed in either local complications or PEG removal because of local complications. Tube deterioration causing PEG removal occurred in 36 of the 228 polyurethane PEG catheters and in 25 of the 69 silicone PEG catheters (P = 0.0005). Tube deterioration occurred significantly earlier in the 25 silicone catheters than in the 36 polyurethane catheters. The mean time from PEG placement to PEG removal was 287 days (95% confidence interval, 239-335) for silicone tubes and 573.9 days (95% confidence interval, 425-723) for polyurethane tubes (P = 0.0024).

Polyurethane PEG catheters seem to be more resistant to deterioration than silicone PEG catheters, and at present they should be preferred for long-term enteral feeding via PEG.