[The PEG: why wait?]

The swallowing disorder is an impediment to feed the patient. The percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) offers importants advantages over nasogastric tube feeding in patients who need long-term enteral nutrition with difficulty to swallow and to failure to thrive.

We have achieved 40 PEG in our department over the past 10 years. We registered date of the age, weight, indications, types of PEG, the time to first change, evolution of weight and percentiles and the complications.

The average age of our patients was 5 years, 30% under 1 year. We used mostly tubes between 9 and 15 Fr and increasing the size according to nutritional needs. The average weight at the time of PEG placement was 13 kg. The main indications were the impossibility to swallow and failure to thrive and the principal diagnosis was the encephalopathy in 45% of cases. The surgical technique was successful in 100%. Of the complications, only two patients required surgery, a gastrocolic fistula and a laparotomy about broken tube of gastrostomy that has been caught in the cecum. In our series we reported 11 cases of mortality from causes unrelated to the gastrotmy.

The PEG is a good alternative to nasogastric tube in patients with swallowing disorders or failure to thrive in chronic diseases, even in children under one year. The early placement of the PEG support the growth development in these patients with chronic disease who require enteral nutrition for long periods. Probably, the time of placement should be more precocious in chronic patients as well tolerated and may have a long life with a good care.