RESUMO
Over the past two years we have performed percutaneous endoscopic feeding gastrostomy (PEFG) in 5 patients, 4 males and 1 female, aged 42 to 89. All of them suffered from either incurable or severe illness which prevented their oral feeding. PEFG was performed following the method described by Gauderer and Ponsky or traction method. Only in one case it was difficult to perform and in another case a second PEFG was needed because of unintentional catheter extraction. PEFG allowed an adequate feeding in all of the patients until their death due to underlying disorder or to other causes during the follow-up period. The complications found included ascites infection in a patient with cirrhosis and pneumoperitoneum which resolved spontaneously in another case. No mortality was observed related to the procedure.
