Comparison of Open Gastrostomy and Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy in Head and Neck Cancer Patients, Tertiary Care Hospital Experience

Objective: The current study was conducted to review and compare PEG and Gastrostomy in terms of early complications in head and neck cancer patients. Materials and Methods: This was prospective comparative study recruited total 60 patients as per the inclusion criteria, 30 in each group. Patients were assigned to the groups based on the surgeon’s choice. Ethical clearance was taken from ethical review board. Informed consent was taken from patients before enrolling them into the study. Non-probability consecutive sampling technique was used to enroll study participants. Data was collected on pre-designed performa and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Setting: Section of Otolaryngology, Department of Surgery, Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi. Results: The two groups did not differ on basis of age, gender and tumor site. The outcomes variables including pain and bleeding from post-operative day1 to day 5 were significantly lower in patients who underwent PEG placement as compared to patients whom we performed OPEN gastrostomy. None the patient had peristomal infection in PEG group throughout the study. However, difference between the groups was statistically significant from post-operative day 3 to day 5. Conclusion: In our study, PEG was associated with lesser complications than open gastrostomy. Recently clinicians are using newer modalities like radiological and laparoscopic gastrostomy at various centres in Pakistan as the first option for placing feeding gastrostomy. Therefore, future studies are warranted to compare their efficacy and post-operative complications PEG. Keywords: Head and neck cancer, Open gastrostomy, Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, Complications, Pain, Peristomal infection, Bleeding