Figure 1.

Flowchart for creation of the analytic cohorts from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Medicare-linked dataset. ^a Ineligible VGT refers to gastrostomy placement as an outpatient procedure or during a admission in which bowel obstruction was not a diagnosis code; ^b Patients in top quartile of survival duration after first MBO admission were excluded from analysis of EOL care outcomes; Abbreviations: EOL, end-of-life; HMO, health maintenance organization; MBO, malignancy-associated bowel obstruction; VGT, venting gastrostomy tube