Therapeutic utility of percutaneous cecostomy in adults: an updated systematic review

Percutaneous cecostomy is a minimally invasive procedure that provides access to the colon for therapeutic interventions. This review aimed to update and summarize the existing information on the use and application of percutaneous endoscopic cecostomy in the field of therapeutic gastroenterology.

A systematic review of the literature was performed without any restrictions on the year of publication from the date of inception in 1986 to January 2021.

The review was performed using the medical subject heading keywords in the following search engines: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Google Scholar.

A total of 29 articles were subjected to final data extraction. The review included a total of 174 patients who underwent percutaneous cecostomy. Most of the included studies were conducted in the United States (n = 14). The most common comorbidity was cancer (n = 10) and the major indication for performing percutaneous cecostomy was colonic pseudo-obstruction or Ogilvie's syndrome (n = 15). The main technique for performing percutaneous cecostomy was endoscopy (17 studies), followed by fluoroscopy- (five studies), computed-tomography- (three studies), laparoscopy- (two studies), and ultrasound- (one study) guided procedures. The procedure was technically successful in 153 (88%) cases. The total cumulative rates of major and minor complications were 47.5%. These complications included tube malfunction, local wound site infections, and bleeding and rare complications of peritonitis and death.

Percutaneous cecostomy is a safe and effective option for managing acute colonic pseudo-obstruction. It leads to durable symptom relief with low to minimal risk.