Abstract
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomies (PEGs) are a means to provide nutrition in older adults incapable of normal adequate nutrient intake. Often decisions to insert a PEG in patients with illness and dementia are made hastily, before exhausting every means of feeding and full evaluation for the potential to regain capacity to feed normally. Further, ethical aspects often cloud such decisions, with data not supporting meaningful long-term improvement in outcomes or quality of life for the recipient of a PEG. Our case illustrates the story of a nursing home resident in whom an organized approach determined a reversible basis for his inability to feed and the potential to avoid tube insertion.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 453-456 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Journal of the American Medical Directors Association |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2010 |
Keywords
- Dysphagia
- Outcomes with PEG
- PEG
- Quality of life
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Nursing
- Health Policy
- Geriatrics and Gerontology