Treatment Options For Gastroparesis

Venting Gastrostomy

Gastrostomy tubes are tubes used to provide nutritional support. They are the preferred method of helping patients with functional guts take in nutrition if they cannot eat for more than a few weeks. For patients who have mechanical bowel obstruction, a venting enterogastrostomy is used to decompress the bowel and alleviate the symptoms. Gastrostomy tubes are sometimes used for patients who have inoperable and cancerous obstructions of the esophagus and have undergone a failed stent placement. Venting gastrostomy is always used for decompression of cancerous bowel obstructions. Gastrostomy tubes will be placed radiologically or endoscopically while the patient is consciously sedated.