Buried bumper syndrome with a fatal outcome, presenting early as gastrointestinal bleeding after percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy placement

Abstract

Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) has gained wide acceptance among patients who require prolonged tube-feeding support. A rather unusual complication of PEG placement is migration of the internal bumper through or into the abdominal wall. This was first described in 1988 and is called the buried bumper syndrome (BBS). The syndrome is a late complication of PEG tube placement. The manifestations of the syndrome must be recognised and the patient referred for emergency endoscopy and removal of the bumper. Failure to recognise this syndrome may result in serious complications including gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation of the stomach, peritonitis and death. We describe a case where a patient developed the buried bumper syndrome quite early after PEG placement. The syndrome manifested with gastrointestinal bleeding. Although we removed the buried bumper endoscopically, and placed another PEG tube, the patient developed peritonitis and died 16 hours after the removal of the migrated bumper.