Endoscopic vs surgical gastrostomy for enteral nutrition.

A retrospective review of 78 patients who had undergone endoscopic gastrostomy and 22 patients who had undergone Stamm gastrostomy was carried out. The mean operative time for the Stamm gastrostomy group was 63 min, while that for the endoscopic gastrostomy group was 26 min. One operative complication--bleeding--requiring reoperation occurred in the Stamm gastrostomy group. The incidences of aspiration, pneumonia, wound infection, and mortality were significantly higher in the Stamm gastrostomy group. We conclude that percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy is the preferred technique for long-term enteral nutrition.