Durability of surgically versus endoscopically placed jejunostomy tubes in non-oncology patients - A single centre...

Jejunal access is indicated in patients with impaired oral intake or gastroparesis who require enteral nutrition or medication delivery. There are various approaches to establishing jejunal access; including radiological, endoscopic and surgical methods. This study aims to evaluate the complication and re-intervention rates between endoscopic and surgical placement of jejunal tubes (JT).

We retrospectively collected data on patients undergoing surgical or endoscopic placement of JT at a single centre over a ten-year period (2011-2021). We analysed the following information: age, gender, underlying pathology necessitating the JT placement, significant co-morbidities as well as the following outcome data: rates of tube occlusion, dislodgement and need for re-admission and re-intervention.

There were 165 patients included in the cohort. Of these, 96/165 underwent endoscopic placement either using Direct Percutaneous Endoscopic Jejunostomy (DPEJ) (14/96) or through Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy with Jejunal Extension (PEG-J) (82/96), and the remaining 69/165 underwent surgical placement either via a surgical flange (SF) tube (45/69) or the surgical Witzel (SW) technique (18/69). Idiopathic gastroparesis as an indication for JT placement (including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome patients) affected 63.8 % of the surgical and 42.7 % of the endoscopic cohorts. At mean follow up of almost 17 months, the overall need for re-intervention, JT dislodgment and JT occlusion were 32.4 %, 8.8 % and 14.7 % in the surgical cohort, versus 62.8 %, 25.5 % and 27.7 % in the endoscopic cohort (p values of 0.0002, 0.0075 and 0.057, respectively). Individual re-intervention rates were 38.9 % for SW, 31.1 % for SF, 61 % for PEG-J and 64.3 % for DPEJ.

Surgical siting of JT demonstrates significantly reduced dislodgement rates, and requirement for re-intervention in the long-term as compared to endoscopic JT placement.