Percutaneous gastrostomy is a technique whereby a narrow plastic tube is placed through the skin, directly into your stomach. Once in place the tube can be used to give you liquid food directly into your stomach, to provide nutrition. Because it is done through the skin, it is called percutaneous, and gastrostomy means making an opening into the stomach.

A specially trained doctor called a radiologist will perform the procedure. Radiologists have special expertise in using x-ray and scanning equipment and also in interpreting the images produced. They need to look at these images whilst carrying out the procedure.

You need to be an in-patient in the hospital. You may receive a sedative beforehand to relieve anxiety, and possibly an antibiotic. You will be asked to put on a hospital gown. If you have any allergies you must let your doctor know. If you have ever reacted to intravenous contrast medium, the dye used in x-ray departments for kidney x-rays and CT scanning, you must also tell your doctor about this.

You will lie on the x-ray table, generally flat on your back. You need to have a needle put into a vein in your arm so that the radiologist can give you a sedative or pain killers. Once in place this needle will not cause any pain. You will have a monitoring device attached to your finger and will possibly receive oxygen through a small tube in your nose. You may also have a monitoring device attached to your chest.

A gastrostomy is a tube is placed into the stomach through a surgical opening, so that liquid formula (food) can be given via the tube. Sometimes a gastrostomy or g-tube is called a PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy). It is called this because this term is the technique for placing a gastrostomy tube into the stomach. A PEG is a convenient, safe and cosmetically better alternative to a nasal/oesophageal tube.

If you are continually losing weight, doctors may suggest a gastrostomy tube. This is a small tube, called a PEG, that is inserted into your stomach through your abdomen during a minor procedure. This tube will provide your nutritional and fluid requirements and is hidden under clothes when not in use. A special liquid diet is fed at times that fit into your daily activities. Medication can also be given through the gastrostomy tube.

Yes! After the stitches, if you have any, have been removed, you can still swim and take a bath or shower with a gastrostomy.

It is important to clean the site around the tube to avoid any infections. Wash around the area with warm soapy water and try to keep it dry at all times. You can use some protective cream such as paw paw ointment around the stoma.

Yes! Having a gastrostomy should make life better for you. As it is hidden under your clothes, it will not be obvious to people that you have a gastrostomy. There may be social issues with not eating and drinking for the person with a gastrostomy and their family and it can be particularly difficult at social gatherings. It is normal to feel anger, fear, grief and isolation after an illness and surgery. The changes to your body image are obvious to you but not to others.

A needle biopsy is a way of taking a small piece of tissue out of your body, using only a tiny incision, so that it can be examined under a microscope by a pathologist, an expert in making diagnoses from tissue samples. Because this biopsy is done through the skin, it is called a percutaneous biopsy.

This marker facilitates access to the bypassed stomach for x-rays, endoscopic evaluation and feedings if the need arises.

No, ablation does not relate in any way to a coronary artery. Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary is the defining point to PTCA. Is the PTCA/Athr Intvl field tracking time between the last prior PTCA and CABG? So if a patient had a PTCA in 1984 and a CABG in 2000, would it be marked >6 hours? Or does this field pertain to PTCA/Ather Intvl during the admission of the CABG. Yes. Primary or direct stenting is done without angioplasty. All stent placement does not require angioplasty.

The doctor would need to get the patient’s clinical history, examination and imaging, usually in the form of X-rays or a CT scan. There are times when it is necessary to insert a hollow plastic tube into the urinary tract prior to lithotripsy. This tube is called a J-J stent. One end of the stent coils up in the kidney, and the other coils up in the urinary bladder.

There are many patients who because of small size vessels or diffuse disease are not good candidates for percutaneous interventions or bypass surgery. These patients become severely limited because of incapacitating angina. Percutaneous Transluminal Myocardial Revascularization (PTMR) can provide these with symptomatic relief of angina. In some animals, like crocodiles and alligators, the blood flow to the heart muscle is directly from the LV chamber via small channels.

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A specially trained doctor called an interventional radiologist. Radiologists have special expertise in using x-ray and scanning equipment, and also in interpreting the images produced. They need to look at these images while carrying out the biopsy.

You may need to be an in-patient in the hospital, although many biopsies can be performed as an out-patient. You will probably have had some blood tests performed beforehand, to check that you do not have an increased risk of bleeding. You will probably be asked not to eat for four hours beforehand, though you may be allowed to drink some water. You may receive a sedative to relieve anxiety. You will be asked to put on a hospital gown. If you have any allergies, you must let your doctor know.

You will lie on the x-ray, ultrasound or scanning table, in the position that the radiologist has decided is most suitable. You may need to have a needle put into a vein in your arm, so that the radiologist can give you a sedative or painkillers. The interventional radiologist will keep everything as sterile as possible, and may wear a theatre gown and operating gloves. Your skin will be cleaned with antiseptic, and you may have some of your body covered with a theatre towel.

A percutaneous nephrostomy catheter is a small flexible, rubber tube that is placed through your skin into the kidney to drain your urine (diagram):

Biopsies and Aspirations use specialized needles that pass through the skin (Percutaneous) to obtain a sample of tissue (biopsy) or fluid (Aspiration).

Percutaneous Coronary Interventions (PCI) procedures are nonsurgical procedures used to treat persons experiencing myocardial ischemia (inadequate blood flow to the heart) or myocardial infarction (heart attack). The goal of PCI is to open up a coronary artery (blood vessel that brings blood and oxygen to the heart muscle) and restore blood flow.

Everyone knows what an abscess is, and how painful it can be, and how ill it can make you feel. In the past, drainage of an abscess inside your chest or abdomen would have required an open operation. Now it is possible to drain abscesses by inserting a fine plastic tube, called a drainage catheter, into it through the skin, with only a tiny incision. This procedure is called percutaneous (through the skin) abscess drainage.