A comparison of balloon and nonballoon gastrostomy tubes in children
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Read the article on jpedsurg.org ↗Article · Feb 2020 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
Retrospective study of 145 pediatric patients comparing balloon versus nonballoon gastrostomy tubes found balloon devices required significantly fewer emergency visits, radiologic interventions, and operative replacements. Nonballoon devices averaged 2.55 operations versus 0.40 for balloon types, with 95.7% requiring secondary procedures.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to compare primary outcomes following insertion of balloon and nonballoon gastrostomy tubes (G-tubes).
Methods
A retrospective chart review over a 5-year period comparing the need for emergency, radiologic, or operative interventions between balloon and nonballoon G-tube devices was performed.
Results
145 patient charts were reviewed (46.8% female, 53.1% male). The indication for G-tube insertion was failure to thrive in 83.4%. Average age at insertion was 4.3 years (0–17.9 years). 37.2% had a balloon type G-tube, and 62.8% had a nonballoon type. Patients with a nonballoon device had 1.14 (0–15) ER visits related to the G-tube vs. 0.48 (0–6) visits with a balloon device. Of the ER visits for patients with a nonballoon device, 26.9% were replaced in ER, 38.5% in radiology, and 34.6% required an operation for replacement. For patients with a balloon device, 47.8% were replaced in the ER, 52.2% were replaced in radiology (GJ), and none required operative replacement. The majority of patients who initially had a nonballoon G-tube placed required a second operation for device change (95.7%). Patients with nonballoon devices required significantly more operations (average 2.55, range 0–16) vs patients with balloon devices (average 0.40, range 0–3) (p