College Answer

Nasogastric tube: simple, commonly used, cheap, can assess and retrieve residual gastric contents (depends on tube size), advantages of gastric feeding (tolerant of bolus and continuous feeds, buffers gastric acids, bactericidal action of acid, gastric pepsin and lipase facilitate absorption of most feeds)

BUT aesthetic appearance, potential trauma of insertion, potential misplacement during insertion (especially critically ill), requires radiological confirmation of placement, easily dislodged, sinusitis, increase aspiration risk (less competence gastro-oesophageal sphincter), potential for gastric distension, tolerance of feeding susceptible to gastroparesis (emesis, regurgitation).

PEG: avoids nose/mouth issues, better tolerated than nasogastric, less likely to be displaced than nasaogastric, can assess and retrieve gastric contents (if large bore and in stomach), advantages of gastric feeding (see above), avoids interfering with gastro- oesophageal sphincter

BUT more complex to insert, less commonly performed, moreexpensive  tube,  requires  endoscopy  (with  associated  complications),  percutaneous wound, often larger bore tube with potential for trauma and displacement, potential for gastric  distension,  tolerance  of  feeding  susceptible  to  gastroparesis  (emesis, regurgitation).

Percutaneous feeding jejunostomy:  avoids nose/mouth issues, better tolerated than nasogastric, less likely to be displaced than others, avoids interfering with gastro- oesophageal sphincter, bypasses stomach and allows earlier feeding (avoids gastric distension and problems of gastroparesis), theoretically better for pancreatitis (less pancreatic exocrine secretion)

BUT more complex to insert, less commonly performed, more expensive tube, requires endoscopy &/or surgery (with associated complications), percutaneous wound, small bore tube with potential for displacement and blockage (eg. with enteral drugs), less tolerant of bolus or high volume infusions.

Discussion

Elsewhere, there is a brief summary of the routes of enteral nutrition, and it contains this table, which is essentially a tabulated form of the stream-of-consciousness answer offered by the college.