Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, usually shortened to PEG, is a procedure that places a feeding tube directly into the stomach through a small incision in the abdomen, for patients who need long-term nutrition support but cannot swallow safely or adequately on their own. A doctor guides a lighted endoscope into the stomach, passes a needle through the abdominal wall, and uses it to draw a suture up through the esophagus and back out through the skin so the feeding tube can be pulled into place and secured with an internal balloon or dome. The procedure, which takes about twenty minutes, is commonly used for patients with swallowing difficulty caused by stroke, head and neck cancer treatment, or other neurological and anatomical conditions, and it can lower the risk of aspiration pneumonia compared with tube feeding through the nose.