Systematic review of gastrostomy complications and outcomes in pediatric cancer and bone marrow transplant

James Evans, Breeana Gardiner, Dan Green, Faith Gibson, Graeme O'Connor, Julie Lanigan

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Background
Nutrition support is essential in children with cancer, including those undergoing bone marrow transplant (BMT), to reduce the risk of malnutrition and associated deleterious outcomes. Enteral nutrition is more commonly provided via nasogastric than gastrostomy tubes because of safety concerns with the latter in immunocompromised children. This systematic review investigated the incidence and type of complications and outcomes in pediatric cancer patients fed by gastrostomy.

Methods
Databases were searched for randomized and observational studies investigating the use of any gastrostomy device in children aged
Results
Quality of evidence varied, with five studies judged at serious risk of bias and poor quality; however, the remaining 11 were considered to range from moderate to good quality. Across studies, 54.6% of children developed one or more complications, of which 76.6% were classified as minor, 23.4% major. The most frequent complications included inflammation (52% of episodes), infection (42.1%), leakage (22.3%), and granuloma (21%). Evidence regarding infection rates in cancer/BMT patients compared with other disease states was inconclusive. Gastrostomy feeding was associated with improvement or stabilization of nutrition status in 77%–92.7% of children.

Conclusion
Gastrostomy feeding in this population is relatively safe and effective in stabilizing or improving nutrition status throughout treatment. Complications are frequent but mostly minor. Placement requires careful consideration of the complications, benefits, nutrition risk and status at diagnosis, and quality of life.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1185-1197
Number of pages13
JournalNutrition in Clinical Practice
Volume36
Issue number6
Early online date10 Jul 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Nutrition in Clinical Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition

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