Techniques for percutaneous transesophageal gastrotubing

Abstract

Percutaneous transesophageal gastrotubing (PTEG) procedure was developed in Japan as an alternative access route into the gastrointestinal tract, and it has been performed for patients in whom percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy would be technically difficult to place or is contraindicated, such as in a prior gastrectomy and massive ascites. In the PTEG procedure, an indwelling tube is inserted through the cervical esophagus, which gives the patient a slight discomfort after the tube placement. Therefore, PTEG is performed not only for enteral feeding, but also for bowel decompression as a palliative care in patients with malignant gastrointestinal obstruction. Recently, several reports of PTEG from countries outside Japan indicated a high technical success rate without major complications. Furthermore, the usefulness of PTEG for bowel decompression as a palliative care was reported in prospective studies. In fact, PTEG is a technically feasible and safe procedure worldwide.

Keywords

• esophagus; intubation
• gastrointestinal; radiology
• interventional