Guideline for prophylactic feeding tube insertion in patients undergoing resection of head and neck cancers.

Background: Supplementary nutrition is an important aspect of the multidisciplinary management of head and neck cancer patients. In our unit, method of feeding is based on an arbitrary predicted duration of overall treatment (<30 days indicates NG feeding, >30 days prophylactic PEG tube insertion is appropriate). This paper provides a guideline to assist in choosing the feeding method early on to avoid the need for later PEG insertion in those who were initially fed orally or via NG tube.