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Feeding Tube Placement

When disease or other circumstances interfere with the body getting the nutrients that it needs your doctor may recommend this procedure. A feeding tube is a device that is inserted into your stomach through your abdomen allowing nutrition, fluids and/or medications to be put directly into the stomach, bypassing the mouth and esophagus.

Your doctor will use a lighted flexible tube called an endoscope to guide the creation of a small opening through the skin of the upper abdomen and directly into the stomach. Patients generally receive an intravenous sedative and local anesthesia, and an antibiotic is given by vein prior to the procedure. Patients can usually go home the day of the procedure or the next day.

This treatment is reserved for when you have trouble eating on your own, due to reasons such as the following:

1. You have an abnormality of your mouth or esophagus (the tube that connects your throat to your stomach).

2. You have difficulty swallowing.

3. You aren’t getting enough nutrition or fluids by mouth.

Conditions that can cause you to have trouble eating include: stroke, burns, cerebral palsy, motor neuron disease, dementia.

The treatment can also be done if you need it to receive certain medications.