Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) - An useful 'surgical' measure.

Eight patients were studied to evaluate the efficacy of a surgeonled percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). Three patients underwent PEG at the time of elective surgery (carcinoma larynx-2, carcinoma tonsil-1), two underwent placements during emergency surgery for neck trauma (blunt injury-1, penetrating injury-1) and three for palliation (recurrent tongue carcinoma-1, recurrent epilaryngeal carcinoma-1, metastatic neck nodes-1). For patients undergoing intraoperative PEG, the operative time was prolonged by an average of 12 minutes. There were no major procedural or feedingrelated complications in any of the patients. Individual subjective tolerability was good in all patients. A surgeonled PEG is a simple and safe means of combining all the advantages of enteral nutrition with none of the disadvantages of nasogastric tube feeding in emergency, elective head and neck operations and in palliation. The procedure merits wider use in head and neck surgery units in India.