Risk factors for aspiration pneumonia after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is generally used for long-term enteral nutrition. Patients who require PEG placement are often very sick, and postoperative complications, especially aspiration pneumonia, can be fatal.

In this study we investigated the risk factors for aspiration pneumonia after PEG using a simple two-step swallowing provocation test (S-SPT), as reported in 1999 by Teramoto et al.

The study included 29 patients (10 men, 19 women; mean age 84.6 years) who underwent S-SPT before PEG. We evaluated the presence of reflux esophagitis (RE) and esophageal hiatal hernia (EHH) with PEG. According to the S-SPT results, a normal response to the 1st step S-SPT was given a score of 0, a normal response to the 2nd step S-SPT was given a score of 1, and an abnormal response to the 2nd step S-SPT was given a score of 3. In addition to S-SPT, the presence of RE was given a score of 3, the absence of RE was given a score of 0, the presence of EHH was given a score of 2, and the absence of EHH was given a score of 0. We evaluated the association between the presence of aspiration pneumonia, as an early and critical complication, up to 1 month after PEG and determined the total risk score (score of S-SPT+ score of RE+ score of EHH).

The group with an abnormal response to the 2nd step S-SPT and the group with RE both exhibited aspiration pneumonia. The patients with aspiration pneumonia all achieved total scores > or =3, and 8 of 13 patients without aspiration pneumonia achieved scores < or =2.

S-SPT is particularly useful in PEG patients. The scores provided by S-SPT and endoscopic examination can be very useful for aspiration pneumonia after PEG. The patients with scores < or =2 appear to be at very low risk for aspiration pneumonia, and patients with the scores > or =3 should be carefully followed up.