Percutanous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) : Techniques, Effectiveness and Potential Complications

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes are placed more than 125,000 times a year in the Unites States alone, making it one of the most common therapeutic endoscopic procedures. The editor, Eric Mark Pauli, along with his co-editor Dr. Jeffrey Marks had the good fortune of training with Dr. Jeffrey Ponsky, the recognized co-developer of the technique. PEG is deceptively simple. You do not need to complete a fellowship to understand it. In the majority of patients, PEG is a 10 minute procedure that requires minimal pre-operative evaluation, a moderate amount of surgical/endoscopic skill and minimal post-operative follow up. The trick to being good at PEG lies in recognizing those circumstances that require more forethought, more patient/family discussion, more endoscopic skills, more post-operative management. If such recognition is followed up with appropriate action, few patients should be deemed un-PEGable and complications should be kept to an absolute minimum. The purpose of this book is twofold. First, for the individual who is new to performing PEG, it provides an overview of the basic management strategies and endoscopic techniques as they are performed by recognized experts in their respective fields. Second, for the practitioner who already performs PEG, the editor hope that it exposes them to alternative techniques and more advanced therapeutic options such that they can offer the procedure to more patients in an even safer fashion.