Jensen AR, Rao R, Herrmann JL, et al. - A retrospective review of patients undergoing cardiac surgery (CS) was performed using the Society of Thoracic Surgery database, to determine the outcomes of gastrostomy as well as the duration of feeding assistance in these patients. Controls included a cohort of non-CS patients receiving gastrostomy tube (g-tube) placement. There were 144 patients in the CS group and 677 in the non-CS group. A higher incidence of feeding intolerance and taking longer to attain full feeds was noted in the CS patients, and this was corroborated on propensity matched analysis. In both groups, similar technical g-tube complications occurred. In CS, no death occurred because of the g-tube. Overall, findings demonstrated the safety of g-tube placement in patients receiving CS by any technique, with no increase in complications. Supplemental enteral feeding assistance was weaned off, in a significant portion of these patients, by a year following g-tube placement.