Predictive factors for gastrostomy at time of diagnosis and impact on survival in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

BACKGROUND: Gastrostomy is recommended in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in the presence of weight loss over 10% as compared to usual weight, repeated aspirations or meal time duration longer than 45 min. Currently, the impact of gastrostomy on survival of ALS patients is not clear. AIMS: i) to describe diagnosis factors associated with the indication for gastrostomy ii) to evaluate survival of ALS patients with gastrostomy indication according to their acceptance of feeding tube placement. METHODS: tests, Cox model and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Two hundred and eighty-five patients were included. Among the 182 for whom gastrostomy was indicated, 63.7% accepted the placement. The median time was 7.3 months [IQR: 3.2-15.0] and 2.7 months [IQR: 0.9-5.8] respectively from diagnosis to indication and from indication to placement. Weight loss >5% significantly increased the risk of death by 17% (p < 0.0001). At time of diagnosis, bulbar onset, a loss of one point in the body mass index or on the bulbar functional scale were all positively associated with indication for gastrostomy (aOR = 10.0 [95%CI: 1.96-25.0]; p = 0.002, aOR = 1.17 [95%CI: 1.02-1.36]; p = 0.025 and aOR = 1.19 [95%CI: 1.06-1.32]; p = 0.002, respectively). However, gastrostomy placement did not have any impact on survival (aHR = 1.25 [95%CI: 0.88-1.79]; p = 0.22). CONCLUSION: Both neurological and nutritional criteria were associated with an indication for gastrostomy at diagnosis. Gastrostomy placement had no impact on survival. The study of earlier gastrostomy placement might be of interest in further prospective studies.