Table 1.

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube insertion techniques

Technique	Procedure
Pull	Abdominal wall pierced with needle with attached string, string extracted via mouth, gastrostomy tube (GT) fixed to string and guided back through oesophagus, into stomach and through initial abdominal wall puncture site
Push	Similar to pull technique, however, a guidewire is utilised in place of string, with the feeding tube (FT) pushed over the wire and along wire tract
Introducer	Relies on Seldinger technique (commonly employed in angiography and central line insertion), thus eliminating need for dangerous trocar use. A guidewire is introduced into the stomach under endoscopic visualisation and a series of dilating catheters are used to increase the size of the tract before the feeding tube is inserted