Retrospective Study of Gastrostomy Complications

Data collection was carried out retrospectively using the clinical records of the Andalusian Health Service. Until around 2008–2009, medical records were collected on paper and subsequently began to be collected in Digital Medical Records. Written informed consent was obtained from all the patients before the procedure. All the required clinical and ethical guidelines of our center were followed.
The study variables included were: sex, age, date of performance, indication for gastrostomy (head and neck tumours, oesophageal tumours, non-tumoural oesophageal diseases, ALS, other neurological diseases, severe malabsorption, maxillofacial diseases and others), type of gastrostomy, presence of complications, presence of major complications (peritonitis, need for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) after the procedure and gastrocolic fistula), presence of minor complications (non-purulent exudate, irritation, burn due to gastric contents, balloon leakage, obstruction of the tube lumen, stoma dilatation, bleeding, granuloma, balloon rupture and/or local infection -as inflammation and purulent exudate with presence of microorganisms in the culture and need for antibiotic treatment-) and death due to gastrostomy complications. The follow-up period ranged from 3 to 24 months until the patient’s loss of follow-up in the Nutrition Unit.