Fine-needle endoscopic percutaneous gastrostomy

A procedure for percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy is described. Under direct endoscopic control, the surgeon introduces, percutaneously, into the inflated stomach a 9 French Foley catheter through a special needle, which may then be opened for removal. After positioning, the terminal balloon of the Foley is inflated with 7-8 ml of air and the catheter is placed under slight traction to appose the gastric and abdominal walls. Such a method has been used in 5 patients with cancer of the cardia requiring enteral feeding prior to surgery. No complications due to the positioning of the gastrostomy catheter have been observed. We believe that this simple, reliable and inexpensive method constitutes an improvement on the previously described endoscopic percutaneous gastrostomy techniques.