Does the presence of esophagitis prior to PEG placement increase the risk for aspiration pneumonia?
The aim of this study is to determine if the endoscopic presence of esophagitis predicts aspiration pneumonia after the initiation of enteral feedings in a newly placed PEG tube. A retrospective analysis of 278 patients who received a PEG tube from November 1999 to June 2002 was performed. All PEG procedures performed by a single endoscopist were reviewed from the GI Trac database at the Medical University of South Carolina. Eleven of the procedures were aborted due to technical difficulties. Nine patients received the PEG for gastric decompression only. Seven patients died within 14 days of PEG placement from non-PEG-related complications and were excluded. The resulting 251 patients included for our analysis successfully had PEG tube placement and had at least 14 days of enteral feeding. Esophagitis was defined macroscopically by the endoscopic presence of mucosal edema, friability, or obscurity of the normal vascular pattern in the distal esophagus. Aspiration was defined as the wit
