Loading...
After strokes complicated by severe dysphagia, patients and their families face difficult decisions about long-term feeding. In this retrospective study, researchers used data from the U.S. National Inpatient Sample to determine what factors are associated with placement of gastrostomy tubes after stroke.
Between 2008 and 2011, 1540 hospitals admitted 164,000 patients hospitalized at least 4 days after acute ischemic stroke. Overall, 9% received gastrostomy tubes, but variation across hospitals was substantial (range, 0%–26%). In multivariable analyses adjusted for patient and hospital characteristics, black and Hispanic patients were significantly more likely (odds ratios, 1.34 and 1.39, respectively) to receive gastrostomy tubes than white…